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Ruminants, climate change and climate policy

Nature Climate Change volume 4, pages 2–5 (2014)Cite this article

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Greenhouse gas emissions from ruminant meat production are significant. Reductions in global ruminant numbers could make a substantial contribution to climate change mitigation goals and yield important social and environmental co-benefits.

There are several important anthropogenic sources of CH4: ruminants, the fossil fuel industry, landfills, biomass burning and rice production (Fig. 1c). We focus on ruminants for four reasons. First, ruminant production is the largest source of anthropogenic CH4 emissions (Fig. 1c) and globally occupies more area than any other land use. Second, the relative neglect of this greenhouse gas source suggests that awareness of its importance is inappropriately low. Third, reductions in ruminant numbers and ruminant meat production would simultaneously benefit global food security, human health and environmental conservation. Finally, with political will, decreases in worldwide ruminant populations could potentially be accomplished quickly and relatively inexpensively.

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Figure 1: Compound- and sector-specific emissions of greenhouse gases, associated radiative forcing and global ruminant numbers over the past 50 years.
Figure 2: Average carbon equivalent footprint of protein-rich solid foods per kilogram of product from a global meta-analysis of life-cycle assessment studies.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. Lamplugh, B. Kauffman, E. Stehfest and R. Comforto for comments on an early draft of this paper. W.R. was an Oregon State University L.L. Stewart faculty scholar during this project. P.S. is a Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award holder. H.H. gratefully acknowledges research funding from EU-FP7 (Volante, grant no. 265104) and the Austrian Science Funds (project no. P20812-G11). S.A.M. acknowledges the support of the NOAA's Climate Program Office and its Atmospheric Chemistry, Carbon Cycle and Climate Program. C.M. is supported by the Australian Research Council (FT100100338). D.B. thanks the Climate and Land Use Alliance for its support of the Union of Concerned Scientists' Tropical Forest and Climate Initiative.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

    William J. Ripple

  2. Scottish Food Security Alliance-Crops and Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB24 3UU, UK

    Pete Smith

  3. Institute of Social Ecology Vienna, Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt, Wien, Graz, Schottenfeldgasse 29, Vienna, 1070, Austria

    Helmut Haberl

  4. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Integrative Research Institute on Transformations of Human-Environment Systems (IRI THESys), Friedrichstraße 191, Berlin, D-10117, Germany

    Helmut Haberl

  5. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, 80305, Colorado, USA

    Stephen A. Montzka

  6. The University of Queensland, School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, Brisbane, 4072, Queensland, Australia

    Clive McAlpine

  7. Tropical Forest and Climate Initiative, Union of Concerned Scientists, 1825 K Street, NW Suite 800, 20006, Washington DC, USA

    Douglas H. Boucher

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Correspondence to William J. Ripple.

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Ripple, W., Smith, P., Haberl, H. et al. Ruminants, climate change and climate policy. Nature Clim Change 4, 2–5 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2081

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