New Zealand proposes on-farm carbon tax from 2025
New Zealand is set to tax farmers for carbon emissions — with the proposal creating tensions in the agricultural sector.
A world-first proposal to tax burping livestock within three years has created controversy across the Tasman.
Under a draft plan, put together by the Ardern government and the Federated Farmers of NZ among other groups, farmers would have to pay for livestock gas emissions from 2025.
Short-and long-lived farm gas will be priced separately, although a single measure to calculate their volume will be used.
Federated Farmers took part in the process from 2019 after the Ardern Government moved to end the exemption agriculture currently receives from NZ’s emissions trading scheme.
In a lengthy letter to members, Federated Farmers president Andrew Hoggard said the He Waka Eke Noa report contained aspects that were “good, bad and ugly.”
“There are a few very hard-fought wins delivered by (Federated Farmers), plus some dead rats we had to swallow,” Mr Hoggard said.
“The pricing system proposed would operate at the ‘farm level’ from the start, which is what farmers asked for.
“There has been a lot of lobbying from the government for the scheme to be at a ‘processor level’, which essentially means collecting the funding without any recognition of individual farm circumstances.”
While the He Waka Eke Noa draft plan was released last week, the NZ government won’t make a final decision on how agricultural emissions will be priced until December.
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