Cow and sheep burps may be taxed in a novel plan to cut greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
The proposal would make New Zealand, a large agricultural exporter, the first country to make farmers pay for emissions from livestock.
The country has a population of five million but about ten million cattle and 26 million sheep.
The animals’ belching and flatulence is a major source of greenhouse gases.
Nearly half New Zealand’s emissions, mainly methane, come from agriculture but the farming industry has previously been exempted from such attempts to combat global warming.