A 2023 UN report concluded that the most effective strategies for cutting livestock emissions are improving productivity, genetics and animal health; dietary change is almost irrelevant. Nevertheless, after its presentation at COP28, the media focused solely on the need to eat fewer animal products.
“The media announced that the report told the world we need to change what we eat and consume less food of animal origin,” U.S. livestock and air quality expert Dr Frank Mitloehner told in the World Angus Forum in Brisbane, Australia.
The chart shows what the report actually said: productivity, genetic and welfare improvements have the greatest mitigation potential, while dietary change is the second least effective pathway.
Mitloehner (UC Davis) explained that methane is a short lived gas: of the 558 Tg emitted annually, almost 550 Tg are destroyed, leaving a net balance of about 10 Tg.
Methane is broken down by hydroxyl radicals, so a stable herd does not add to warming; if the herd grows, methane rises, and if it shrinks, warming falls. CO₂, by contrast, accumulates.
The expert stressed the difference between fossil carbon (a one way route from underground to atmosphere) and biogenic carbon (a closed plant animal atmosphere cycle). “Comparing cows with cars is misleading.”
Mitloehner praised New Zealand’s “split gas approach,” which accounts for methane and CO₂ separately, and California’s policy encouraging the dairy sector to cut methane 40 % between 2013 and 2030 through biodigesters, feed additives and genetic selection.
He emphasized that ruminants are essential for food security because they convert inedible biomass and utilize 66 % of marginal agricultural land.
With the world population heading toward 9.5 billion, reducing livestock would undermine food production. He concluded by urging the sector to communicate its achievements better: “If we manage methane, we can be part of the climate solution—but we have to tell the story.”
Source: Beef Central
