It’s no secret that climatists believe that we eat too much meat, and that this must be discouraged.
It’s no secret that climatists believe that we eat too much meat, and that this must be discouraged (and it ought to be no secret that, in more than a few cases, their objections to meat-eating are rooted in other beliefs unrelated to the climate). So, when I wrote these words in the course of an article for NR earlier in the year about net zero, it was not the most daring of prophecies:
[T]hen there’s the small matter of significantly higher prices for meat and dairy products as (direct or indirect) climate levies kick in. Given the merciless math of net zero, they are coming.
The Financial Times (June 25):
Denmark is moving ahead with the world’s first carbon tax on agriculture, with cattle farmers set to be charged almost €100 a year for the greenhouse gas emissions from each of their cows.
After months of fraught negotiations with trade bodies and environmental groups, Denmark’s ruling coalition on Monday night agreed an effective tax rate of DKr120 (€16) per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions from livestock, including cows and pigs.
Under its former, unlamented prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand had already taken steps to introduce a “burp tax” on livestock, but those were scrapped by the country’s new center-right government. Undaunted, Denmark, which has an important agricultural sector (it is the fifth-largest pork exporter in the world), is, pointlessly, puritanically, and self-destructively, stepping up, so to speak, to the plate.
Assuming the Danish law passes, which it presumably will, the tax will come into effect in 2030. It will be calculated at a headline rate of DKK 300 per ton of CO2 equivalent (the four-legged climate criminals are responsible for a lot of methane emissions, too). At first, there will be a standard 60 percent deduction, meaning that the effective rate will “only” be DKK 120 a ton for “at least” two years. As always with these sort of measures, the ratchet will turn (frog, boiling water, and so on). The headline rate, reports the FT, will rise to DKK 750 in 2035, coincidentally the year the EU ban on sales of almost all new cars powered by internal combustion engines comes into effect. Two things to look forward to!
It’s worth remembering that it was a revolt by farmers against (far more stringent) green laws that set in motion the events that led to the formation of a populist-dominated government in the Netherlands. That, and other farmer revolts within the EU led Brussels to backtrack on plans to include emissions from agriculture in its road map for emissions reductions by 2040, but, given the calculations that underpin the reckless “race” to net zero, that could only ever be a temporary respite.
Under the circumstances, it was no surprise to read that the EU Commission has been looking at the creation of an agricultural emissions trading system. According to the FT, this would include “requiring farmers . . . to pay directly” for the emissions associated with their farms. The FT also quoted a senior Brussels climate bureaucrat saying that this would present a “new business case and new opportunities for farmers.” What that probably means is that farmers would be given a certain amount of carbon (methane) credits. Under such a system, the farmers would be able to sell any unused credits into the trading system. The best way, of course, to generate such surpluses would be to move away from livestock farming.
And what that means, should it occur, is that meat and dairy prices would go up, adding to greenflation’s toll.