Livestock, methane, and climate change
The politics of global assessments
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12929265 |
|---|---|
| Authors | I Scoones (0000-0001-8547-4464, University of Sussex, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | e790-e790 |
| Publication date | 2022-05-27 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Climate Change (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1757-7780 • E-ISSN: 1757-7799 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/wcc.790 |
| PMID | 37033200 |
| OpenAlex | W4281750125 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 16 |
| References cited | 33 |
The relationship between livestock production and climate change is the subject of hot debate, with arguments for major shifts in diets and a reduction in livestock production. This Perspective examines how global assessments of livestock-derived methane emissions are framed, identifying assumptions and data gaps that influence standard life-cycle analysis approaches. These include inadequate data due to a focus on industrial not extensive systems; errors arising due to inappropriate emission factors being applied; questions of how global warming potentials are derived for different greenhouse gases and debates about what baselines are appropriate. The article argues for a holistic systems approach that takes account of diverse livestock systems-both intensive and extensive-including both positive and negative impacts. In particular, the potential benefits of extensive livestock systems are highlighted, including supporting livelihoods, providing high-quality nutrition, enhancing biodiversity, protecting landscapes, and sequestering carbon. By failing to differentiate between livestock systems, global assessments may mislead. Inappropriate measurement, verification and reporting processes linked to global climate change policy may in turn result in interventions that can undermine the livelihoods of extensive livestock-keepers in marginal areas, including mobile pastoralists. In the politics of global assessments, certain interests promote framings of the livestock-climate challenge in favour of contained, intensive systems, and the conversion of extensive rangelands into conservation investments. Emerging from a narrow, aggregated scientific framing, global assessments therefore can have political consequences. A more disaggregated, nuanced approach is required if the future of food and climate change is to be effectively addressed. This article is categorized under:Integrated Assessment of Climate Change > Assessing Climate Change in the Context of Other IssuesClimate and Development > Social Justice and the Politics of Development
Agriculture · Agroforestry · Business · Climate change · Economics · Environmental planning · Environmental resource management · Geography · Global warming · Greenhouse gas · Livelihood · Livestock · Natural resource economics · Pastoralism · Rangeland · Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact · Climate change impacts on agriculture · Environmental Science · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology · Ecology
Poverty and Prejudice
Preface to the Special Issue
Regenerative cattle farming in Latin America and the Caribbean, far beyond the oxymoron
Pecuária bovina regenerativa na América Latina e no Caribe, muito além do oximoro
Diagnosing forest governance through livestock–wildmeat systems
The invisible vulnerability of pastoralism in northern Côte d'Ivoire
Conceptualising rural environmental justice in Europe in an age of climate-influenced landscape transformations
What is the future of pastoral livestock farming in the context of climate change? An environmental justice analysis of contested discursive justifications of pastoralism in the Pyrenees
Pastoralism and food sovereignty
A governance framework to manage the food-environment-livelihood trilemma of alternative proteins
Getting methane under control
The Wild Imperative
Recognizing the equity implications of restoration priority maps
Nutrient recycling potential of excreta for global crop and grassland production
Biomethane from manure in the RePowerEU
Livestock, methane, and climate change
The Ecological Hoofprint
Food in the Anthropocene
Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers
Toward a holistic understanding of pastoralism
Sustainable livestock development in low- and middle-income countries
Grasslands may be more reliable carbon sinks than forests in California
Comparative analysis of environmental impacts of agricultural production systems, agricultural input efficiency, and food choice
The global cropland-sparing potential of high-yield farming
Livestock, livelihoods and the environment
Re‐framing the climate change debate in the livestock sector
Livestock, methane, and climate change
Framing the future of food
| Unique citing works | 16 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 16 |