A tax on meat- a vital element to a cost-effective climate policy

Yesterday I sat in on a European Union session discussing how climate policy must address the rising issue of land scarcity and what options we have for failing marginal lands. What caught my attention was a lecture during the session by Dr. Fredrik Hedenus who called for an effective tax on meat.

Taking a step back, this proposed tax on meat would be filed under the category of "Methane Mitigation". Methane is a leading green house gas, second only to CO2. Unlike CO2, methane is not clearly linked to an energy source, and its emitters are few and very dispersed. This makes mitigation very difficult. In a recent analysis report released by the Copehagen Consensus Center (C.C.C.), they recommend a efficient global methane mitigation portfolio be produced by the year 2020. This portfolio would include sectors like rice, livestock, solid waste, coal mine methane, and natural gas. Potential benefits could reach net highs of 1.4-3.0, costing anywhere from $14 billion to $30 billion.

Hedenus noted that Methane sources are non-point emission sources and, as stated earlier, this makes it difficult to control and regulate than CO2. Our best option then, is to begin with the strongest most defined known source, livestock. Hedenus suggested that, because these are non-point emission sources, we must implement output based policies. The C.C.C. estimates that benefit-cost ratios could reach approximately 2 through a beef meat tax in OECD countries. This tax would reduce global emissions by 30-70 million CO2 ton equivalents per year by GWP calculations over the next 100 years.