The Missing Target: Why Industrialized Animal Farming Must Be at the Core of the Climate Agenda

TL;DR

The paper argues that industrialized animal farming is a major contributor to climate change and must be addressed in global climate policies.

Contribution

It highlights the urgent need to include animal farming in climate targets, based on a review of recent studies.

Findings

Animal agriculture contributes 12-20% of global greenhouse gas emissions annually.

Excluding animal farming from climate targets risks missing global temperature goals.

The sector significantly contributes to eutrophication, soil acidification, and land use.

Abstract

Ahead of COP30 (the annual Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) in Brazil, this timely article compared the latest literature regarding animal agriculture’s contribution to climate change and broader environmental harm. The findings suggest that, globally, animal agriculture accounts for between 12 and 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions each year. Actual figures are likely to be higher due to measures that are differentially excluded/included between studies. In light of the forecasted failure to meet global commitments to keep warming to an ideal maximum of 1.5 °C, policy makers at COP30 are urged to enact region-specific commitments to reduce production and consumption of animal-sourced foods.

Global greenhouse gas reduction targets are applied to many sectors in many countries, as part of the Nationally Determined Contributions mandated within the Paris Agreement (climate). However, industrialized animal farming is typically missed out or deprioritized. This is despite suggestions that excluding this sector would automatically result in global failure to meet 1.5 °C and potentially even 2 °C maximum temperature rise targets, even if fossil fuel use were to immediately cease. To foster further discussion and assessments about the need for such targets in relation to industrialized animal farming, this study collated and analyzed recent studies on the impacts of industrialized animal farming on the environment. Of the 579 items initially retrieved, 47 studies were shortlisted. Over three quarters (n = 37, 79%) of the shortlisted studies were unequivocal concerning the significant negative impact industrialized animal farming has had, and continues to have, on climate change and broader environmental concerns—between 12 and 20% of all annual global greenhouse gases, and 50%, 32%, and 76% of all food-originating eutrophication, soil acidification, and land use, respectively. This all creates immense contributions to biodiversity loss, which itself further aggravates climate change. The remaining studies did not assert that industrialized animal farming had an insignificant impact; however, their findings complicated the picture in one way or another (e.g., suggesting suboptimal measuring methods) or they had flawed methodologies. As a matter of urgency, the present paper recommends that targets for significant reductions in levels of animal production and consumption should be incorporated into discussions and policies for tackling the climate crisis, such as at COP30.

Figures