The meat and dairy industry is not 'climate neutral', despite some eye-catching claims
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Martedì, Gennaio 2, 2024
They then pour a little less gas and want credit for doing so, despite still feeding the fire.
Key Points:
- They then pour a little less gas and want credit for doing so, despite still feeding the fire.
- Yet that is more or less what some influential supporters of the livestock industry have done.
- For example, one study claims that the US dairy industry could reach climate neutrality by 2050 through reducing its annual methane emissions by just 1%-1.5%.
- That methane is a product of the digestion processes in cattle, sheep, and other ruminants, emitted when they belch.
- In a paper now published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, my co-author Donal Murphy-Bokern and I argue that these claims represent a distorted understanding of the science.
- There’s a risk that they could be used for greenwashing and undermining confidence in this area of climate science.
Changing definitions and climate metrics
- That’s why in 2018 some academics introduced a new metric called GWP* to better represent the warming impact over time.
- This risks undermining climate science by confusing businesses, consumers and policy makers.
- These recent climate neutral claims distract us from the urgent challenge of reducing emissions of all greenhouse gases from all sectors, including agriculture.
- He told The Conversation: “Reaching climate neutrality is a good goal to have, but it doesn’t have to be the last goal.
Caspar Donnison does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.