The report states that by addressing the largest source of shorter-lived climate forces - livestock production - can help limit global warming to under 2º C. Reducing livestock production and returning pastures to native forests, woodlands and grasslands is the most affordable and effective means of achieving this goal.
"The UNEP-WMO assessment is important because it highlights that CO2 alone will not keep global warming under 2º C because CO2 stays in the atmosphere for centuries. If we limit black carbon, methane and ground level ozone, we can slow the heating in just a few years, averting dangerous tipping point," WPF executive director Gerard Wedderburn-Bisshop states.
Building on the work of UNEP-WMO, the WPF report identifies livestock production as the largest human caused source of black carbon, methane and also the best means of controlling ground level ozone. It further describes how steep cuts in livestock production could deliver up to 33% less methane, 30% less black carbon and 33% less tropospheric ozone.
According to WPF director Mark Galvin, there are significant financial benefits as well: "The most viable option of addressing climate change and other environmental threats like biodiversity loss, deforestation and water scarcity is to move away from animal products. The climate change mitigation costs alone can be reduced by up to 80% if all animal products are eliminated. This equates to a saving of US$32 trillion off the estimated US$40 trillion cost of mitigating climate change."
"Although most approaches to addressing the climate change impacts of livestock focus on capturing methane from manure, we find that the benefits of this approach will be very small because 90% of livestock methane emissions are from enteric fermentation. Substituting livestock products with plant-based sources of nutrition therefore has a far greater impact on climate change," Wedderburn-Bisshop says.
