Farmers face £85 cost for every farting cow they’ve in bid to save lots of the planet
Farmers face a £200 charge for each farting cow they have in a bid to save the planet.
Denmark is introducing the world’s first carbon tax on agriculture as it tries to slash greenhouse gas emissions, which it hopes will be copied around the globe.
Livestock accounts for 11% of global emissions, with almost two-thirds driven by tooting cattle.
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Flatulent cows produce methane through their digestive systems when they fart and burp.
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The ‘fart tax’ will apply to sheep and pigs as well. Danish PM Mette Frederiksen hopes it will “pave the way forward regionally and globally”.
But furious farmers said it’s “crazy” and slammed the Danish government for not “listening”.
They claim it would hamper technology investment in the Scandinavian country, which is one of the greenest agricultural producers in the world.
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Campaigners from the Net Zero Watch group called it “madness”.
The move will see farmers taxed £12 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions from livestock from 2030.
Danish cows each produce roughly six tonnes of the gas a year, which means an annual £80 charge.
The levy will increase to £34 per tonne by 2035, meaning each cow will cost more than £200 a year. The latest figures, from 2022, show there were nearly 1.5million cows in the Nordic nation.
Climate minister Lars Aagaard said agriculture was the country’s largest greenhouse gas emitter.
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He said: “This cannot continue. Agriculture must contribute and be part of the green future.”
Taxation minister Jeppe Bruus said it will make Denmark the “first country in the world to introduce a real CO2 tax on agriculture”.
New Zealand recently axed plans to introduce a similar tax following a backlash from farmers.
Methane is one of the most potent contributors to global warming.
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