Flatulence tax on agricultural livestock.

[Haliotis]

It is reported on BBC News that Denmark are to introduce a flatulence imissions tax on agricultural livestock, commencing in 2030. This will be charged at 300 Krona (£34) per tonne of methane (as per carbon dioxide equivalent), and will include cows and pigs.  It will rise to 750 Krona in 2035.   Will these animals be fitted with fartmeters?  Whose job will it be to read the meters, and what safety precautions will be provided for protection of the reader?  I wonder what their required qualifications will be?  Perhaps “End Product Gas Detector”. Or simply “Methane Monitor”.   

[Mjolinor]

Like most things in this world it makes no sense to me.

If a cow eats a blade of grass and farts it makes the same amount of gas as the grass does if it had not been eaten as far as I can see.

Clearly I am not in possession of all the relevant facts. Either that or it is as stupid as I think it is.

Hoping for enlightenment.

[AJones]

22 minutes ago, Mjolinor said:

If a cow eats a blade of grass and farts it makes the same amount of gas as the grass does if it had not been eaten as far as I can see.

It's the type of gas that matters because some gases absorb infrared more than others, so they act like a blanket trapping more of the sun's heat and so warm up the atmosphere more, causing more global warming.

The concern about methane is because it is much more absorbing of infrared than plain carbon dioxide, with the evidence being that 1 unit of methane, over a 20 year period, has 80x the warming effect compared to 1 unit of carbon dioxide.

This is why the scientists get concerned about methane, from agriculture and cows, but also from leaks of natural gas. With that 80x multiplier, its much worse than carbon dioxide and so getting methane emissions down has a much bigger impact in preventing global warming.

For your grass example, if the grass is broken down by bacteria or other animals to CO2 then the global warming impact is a lot lower than if it is broken down in a way, or by animals like cattle, which produce lots of methane in the process.