This booklet shows how advanced (Tier 2) inventory methods can support climate change and productivity goals and help broaden countries’ policy options. Information found in this booklet:
- Why are livestock GHG inventories important?
- The benefits of advanced GHG inventories for livestock development
- The difference between Tier 1 and Tier 2 methods
- How to set up an advanced inventory
- An example of a Tier 2 approach for beef production
- A case study of Uruguay’s Tier 2 inventory
- Where to find more information
Global Research Alliance (GRA)
2016
This report provides an overview of current practices, challenges and opportunities in the measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) of livestock greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and emission reductions by developing countries in the context of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The report describes MRV obligations under the UNFCCC (Chapter 2), current practices in compiling and reporting livestock GHG emissions through national GHG inventories (Chapter 3) and MRV of mitigation actions (Chapter 4), and highlights opportunities for improvement (Chapter 5).
Wilkes A, Reisinger A, Wollenberg E, van Dijk S
2017
Wageningen, the Netherlands: CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and Global Research Alliance for Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA)
This info note describes the current state of livestock MRV (national GHG inventories, mitigation actions), improving national GHG inventories, improving MRV of mitigation actions, and recommendations for support MRV improvement. It is a summary of the longer report Measurement, reporting and verification of livestock GHG emissions by developing countries in the UNFCCC: current practices and opportunities for improvement.
Wilkes A
2017
CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS): Wageningen, the Netherlands
This study examines the contribution of the agriculture, forestry, and other land-use activities to anthropogenic emissions. Findings confirm that the share of emissions from these activities to the total anthropogenic total have declined over time. This paper looks at the emissions from subsectors between 1990 and 2012, analyzing trends and providing results to further inform the current climate policy debate on land use.
Tubiello F, Salvatore Mm Ferrara A, House J, Federici S, Rossi S, Biancalani R, Golec R, Jacobs H, Flammini A, Prosperi P, Cardenas-Galindo P, Schmidhuber J, Sanz Sanchez M, Srivastava N, Smith P
2015
Journal: Global Change Biology
This paper provides an overview of demographic and economic changes in the world that are in influencing the livestock sector. The following section describes the methodological approaches to mapping human and livestock populations, provides a summary of how the FAO projections are made (focusing on livestock commodities), and describes how these can be combined to map projected demand for and supply of livestock commodities. The results section presents some examples of the outputs of the analysis and the concluding section mentions some ways in which the methodology might further be developed in the future and discusses some implications and potential uses of the results.
Robinson T, Pozzi F
2011
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: Rome, Italy
This article estimates the GHG emissions for the livestock sector between 1995 and 2005. Livestock accounts for up to half of the technical mitigation potential of the agriculture, forestry and land-use sectors. This study discusses management options and the economic potential of these management alternatives.
Herrero M, Henderson B, Havlík P, Thorton P, Conant R, Smith P, Wirsenius S, Hristov A, Gerber P, Gill M, Butterbach-Bahl K, Valin H, Garnett T, Stehfest E
2016
Nature – Climate Change
This study aims to estimate the marginal costs of reducing GHG emissions for a selection of practices in the ruminant livestock sector (cattle, sheep, goats) globally. It advances on previous assessments by calculation marginal costs rather than commonly reported average costs of abatement and can thus provide insights about abatement response at different carbon prices. This study also provides strategic guidance as to where abatement efforts could be most cost effectively targeted.
Henderson B, Falcucci A, Mottet A, Early L, Werner B, Steinfeld H, Gerber P
2015
Journal: Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change
Sustainable intensification of livestock production systems might become a key climate mitigation technology. However, livestock production systems vary substantially, making the implementation of climate mitigation policies a formidable challenge. This article describes results from an economic model using a detailed and high-resolution representation of livestock production systems. The authors conclude that mitigation policies targeting emissions from land-use change are 5 to 10 times more efficient—measured in “total abatement calorie cost”—than policies targeting emissions from livestock only. Thus, fostering transitions toward more productive livestock production systems in combination with climate policies targeting the land-use change appears to be the most efficient lever to deliver desirable climate and food availability outcomes.
Havlík P, Valin H, Herrero M, Obersteiner M, Schmid E, Rufino M, Mosnier A, Thornton P, Böttcher H, Conant R, Frank S, Fritz S, Fuss S, Kraxner F, Notenbaert A
2014
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
This paper estimates GHG emissions from livestock in 237 countries and 11 livestock categories between 1961-2010, analyzing trends in the data. Global GHG emissions from livestock increased by 51 % during the analyzed period, mostly due to strong growth of emissions in developing (Non-Annex I) countries (+117 %). In contrast, developed country (Annex I) emissions decreased (−23 %). Since developed countries tend to have lower CO2-equivalent GHG emissions per unit GDP and per quantity of product generated in the livestock sector, the amount of wealth generated per unit GHG emitted from the livestock sector can be increased by improving both livestock farming practices in developing countries and the overall state of economic development. Discrepancies with higher tiers, demonstrate the value of more detailed analyses, and discourage over-interpretation of smaller-scale trends in the Tier 1 results, but do not undermine the value of global Tier 1 analysis.
Caro D, Davis S, Bastianoni S, Caldeira K
2014
Climatic Change
This paper discusses the capability of biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) to control soil-nitrifier activity and improve nitrogen-cycling in agricultural systems. Transformative biological technologies can help reduce GHG emissions and globally make farming nitrogen efficient and less harmful to the environment.
Subbarao G, Arango J, Masahiro K, Hooper A, Yoshihashi T, et al.
2017
Plant Science
