A. Mottet (FAO)

1. Low carbon livestock
What is being done
and what is the way forward ?
Anne Mottet
Livestock Development Officer
Harry Clark, Henning Steinfeld, Carlos Seré, Carolyn Opio

2. Livestock for food security and nutrition
• 18% of global kcal and 34% of global protein in milk, meat and eggs
• Essential micronutrients – e.g. vitamin A, vitamin B12, riboflavin,
calcium, iron, zinc – especially children and pregnant women
• Use by-products and grass to produce human edible food
• Produce manure and draught power + income at household and
national level
• Feed/food competition
• Women empowerment (e.g. 25% of dairy farms are female headed)

3. GHG emissions from livestock supply chains
Reference year 2010. FAO, 2016

4. Low carbon livestock development
• Livestock sector is expected to grow, especially in
developing countries
• 92 developing countries avec included livestock in
their INDCs
• Investment in low carbon livestock is growing. E.g.
GEF climate smart livestock projects in Ecuador and
Uruguay; climate component of World Bank
investments in West Africa and South Asia…

5. Mitigation options for livestock
1. Further increases in animal productivity and farm
efficiency & technologies that directly seek to reduce
emissions
2. Soil carbon sinks
3. Reducing waste – the circular bio-economy
4. Demand side measures – reducing meat consumption

6. Mitigation via increasing efficiency
(20-30% reduction potential)
• Consistent decreases in emissions intensity – E.g. Asia: from 12.9kg
CO2e to 4kg CO2e between 1961 and 2012.
• Based on best practices and technologies at both animal and herd level.
• Relevant to all systems of production.
• Strong synergies with increased food security, rising incomes and
system resilience.
• Where livestock production is relatively static: reduce emissions per unit
of product and absolute emissions. Where the sector is expanding:
reduce emissions below ‘business as usual’.
• Direct mitigation? Various levels of development and implementation

7. Reducing enteric methane emissions
http://www.fao.org/in-action/enteric-methane

8. http://www.fao.org/in-action/enteric-methane

9. http://www.fao.org/in-action/enteric-methane

10. Soil carbon sequestration
(reduction potential ??)
• Soils can potentially stock more carbon than they do currently.
• Multiple benefits –ecosystem resilience.
• Large gaps in knowledge on how management practices can
increase soil C : pasture restoration, rotational grazing,
integration with trees…
• Quantification challenging; small changes & large stocks, spatial
variability, environmental influences; short vs. long term etc.
• Soil carbon stock increases are reversible and sequestration rate
declines over time.

11. Soil carbon sequestration
• LEAP Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on soil carbon stock
changes to overcome lack of consensus on reference
method and data
• Global Soil Partnership
• 4/1000 initiative
• Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock – Action Network
“Restore value to grasslands”
• …

12. Improved integration in circular bioeconomy
(reduction potential ??)
• Increase use of crop residues and by
products as animal feed
• Improve recycling of nutrients and
energy from livestock waste
• Supply chain approach with different
scales
• Requires better pricing of
externalities, removal of perverse
incentives information/knowledge
and adequate policies (public health)

13. Potential emission reduction with improvements in
feed quality, grazing management animal health and
husbandry, manure management, energy use efficiency
FAO, 2013. Mottet et al., 2016

14. Summary
• Livestock are important in context of climate change, as a source of
livelihood and resilience for hundreds of millions of vulnerable people
and as significant contributors to GHG emissions
• Low carbon livestock is possible, options exist
• Most of the time, options also reduce vulnerability of livestock and
farms to climate change
• Concerted action needed and a ‘basket’ approach likely to bring best
results
• We are encouraged by examples of voluntary commitments at supply
chain level but also by growing interest in developing countries