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Greenhouse gas mitigation potentials in the livestock sector

Abstract

The livestock sector supports about 1.3 billion producers and retailers, and contributes 40–50% of agricultural GDP. We estimated that between 1995 and 2005, the livestock sector was responsible for greenhouse gas emissions of 5.6–7.5 GtCO2e yr−1. Livestock accounts for up to half of the technical mitigation potential of the agriculture, forestry and land-use sectors, through management options that sustainably intensify livestock production, promote carbon sequestration in rangelands and reduce emissions from manures, and through reductions in the demand for livestock products. The economic potential of these management alternatives is less than 10% of what is technically possible because of adoption constraints, costs and numerous trade-offs. The mitigation potential of reductions in livestock product consumption is large, but their economic potential is unknown at present. More research and investment are needed to increase the affordability and adoption of mitigation practices, to moderate consumption of livestock products where appropriate, and to avoid negative impacts on livelihoods, economic activities and the environment.

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Figure 1: GHG emissions from global livestock for 1995–2005.
Figure 2: Baseline projections of GHG emissions for the main IPCC source categories for the entire agricultural sector.
Figure 3: Technical mitigation potentials of supply-side options for reducing emissions from the livestock sector.
Figure 4: The carbon sequestration potential of grazing lands.
Figure 5: Total abatement calorie cost (TACC) of mitigation policies.

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Acknowledgements

This paper constitutes an output of the Belmont Forum/FACCE-JPI funded DEVIL project (NE/M021327/1). Financial support from the CGIAR Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and the EU-FP7 AnimalChange project is also recognized. P.K.T. acknowledges the support of a CSIRO McMaster Research Fellowship.

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M.H. conceived the study and prepared the manuscript. All authors analysed data and contributed to the writing and editing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Mario Herrero.

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Herrero, M., Henderson, B., Havlík, P. et al. Greenhouse gas mitigation potentials in the livestock sector. Nature Clim Change 6, 452–461 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2925

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