New Zealand pushes back start date for price on farm emissions

New Zealand farmers will have until the end of 2025 before they have to pay for methane produced by sheep and cattle, after the Labour government on Friday pushed back its plans to price agricultural emissions of greenhouse gases. New Zealand, home to 5 million people, has about 10 million cattle and 26 million sheep and nearly half its total greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, mainly methane. Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said pricing of such emissions would start in the fourth-quarter of 2025, back from a previously planned start in the first quarter to give farmers more time to adjust.