A draft law submitted to the Buenos Aires legislature by the representative Lucia Lorena Klug, from Union Por la Patria Close to Juan Grabois, he unleashed an unprecedented scandal in the agricultural sector. The initiative proposes the creation of an “environmental methane tax in Buenos Aires (Tampa),” A new tax aims to collect a ‘tax’ on greenhouse gases emitted by cows during the digestion process. If approved, it would force livestock producers to do so Payment is made on the basis of kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent emittedcalculated in relation to the number of heads of livestock.
The proposal, which is based on the principle of “extended producer responsibility,” according to the legislator, seeks to mitigate methane emissions resulting from livestock activity, which represents 19% of methane in the provinces, and Use the funds raised to improve solid waste management in urban areas. The stated goal is Compensation for emissions from the field Through the reduction of gases achieved through adequate management of landfills and open dumps.
The draft law asserts that this measure responds to “the urgent need to confront the challenges of climate change and its impacts” in a province that is among the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the country. However, the Initiative A Immediate and unanimous condemnation in the fieldHe describes it as a “hidden tax” and considers it technically inapplicable.
The reaction of rural entities was absolute rejection, describing the proposal as a new attempt to burden a sector that already supports one of the highest tax pressures with costs. The Confederation of Rural Associations of Buenos Aires and La Pampa (CARBAP) was the first to express its opposition using categorical terms.
Its president, Ignacio Kovarski, stated the following: “Charging cows to breathe doesn’t reduce emissions, it reduces production.”She rejected Tampa’s environmental law, considering it a “disguised tax on rural labor.” CARBAP stated that The project was not consulted with the sector and lacks “technical sense or support”.
“Given the intention to impose an environmental tax on methane (TAMBA) in the province of Buenos Aires, we express from CARBAP our absolute rejection of a project that, far from offering solutions, once again burdens producers with meaningless cost or technical support,” they said in a statement.
In the Legislative Council, rejection also came from the opposition. Regional MP Luciano Bugallo (Civic Coalition) called the initiative to a “cow fart tax” She denounced its practical ineffectiveness. There is currently no accessible, verifiable technology to measure methane emissions individually at each livestock enterprise, which would turn the tax into a fixed burden with no real connection to environmental mitigation, Boogaloo said.
Tax on cow gases: technical infeasibility and lack of consensus
The central problem with the proposal, beyond the tax burden, is the calculation methodology and destination of the funds. Although livestock farming is an important source of methane (54% of Argentina’s total methane emissions in 2022 came from enteric fermentation of livestock), critics assert that the project penalizes productive activity without offering concrete solutions.
CARBAP questioned the logic behind the project, warning that “TAMBA does not improve the environment or reduce emissions. It just adds another cost to a sector that already bears a record tax burden.” They also pointed to the lack of efficiency in public spending: “Once again, we choose to increase financial pressure on citizens, families and producers, rather than reduce benefits, remove overlapping structures or modernize public administration.”
Despite Representative Kluge’s talk about the necessity of compensating for methane gas resulting from livestock farming, legislative sources confirm that the project does not receive the necessary support from other blocs. His parliamentary future is considered “almost zero” due to insurmountable technical objections and direct opposition from the Buenos Aires countryside.
The only international precedent of this kind exists in Denmark, which agreed in 2024 to impose a tax on methane emissions from livestock starting in 2030, but under an agreement that included the government, the opposition, and representatives of the livestock, industrial, and union sectors, in an effort to implement a serious and consensual public policy. In Argentina, the proposal was accepted as an improvised measure that threatened the profitability of production.