The FAOSTAT database of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture

Abstract

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture, including crop and livestock production, forestry and associated land use changes, are responsible for a significant fraction of anthropogenic emissions, up to 30% according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Yet while emissions from fossil fuels are updated yearly and by multiple sources-including national-level statistics from the International Energy Agency (IEA)-no comparable efforts for reporting global statistics for agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) emissions exist: the latest complete assessment was the 2007 IPCC report, based on 2005 emission data. This gap is critical for several reasons. First, potentially large climate funding could be linked in coming decades to more precise estimates of emissions and mitigation potentials. For many developing countries, and especially the least developed ones, this requires improved assessments of AFOLU emissions. Second, growth in global emissions from fossil fuels has outpaced that from AFOLU during every decade of the period 1961-2010, so the relative contribution of the latter to total climate forcing has diminished over time, with a need for regular updates. We present results from a new GHG database developed at FAO, providing a complete and coherent time series of emission statistics over a reference period 1961-2010, at country level, based on FAOSTAT activity data and IPCC Tier 1 methodology. We discuss results at global and regional level, focusing on trends in the agriculture sector and net deforestation. Our results complement those available from the IPCC, extending trend analysis to a longer historical period and, critically, beyond 2005 to more recent years. In particular, from 2000 to 2010, we find that agricultural emissions increased by 1.1% annually, reaching 4.6 Gt CO 2 yr −1 in 2010 (up to 5.4-5.8 Gt CO 2 yr −1 with emissions from biomass burning and organic soils included). Over the same decade 2000-2010, the ratio of agriculture to fossil fuel emissions has decreased, from 17.2% to 13.7%, and the decrease is even greater for the ratio of net deforestation to fossil fuel emissions: from 19.1% to 10.1%. In fact, in the year 2000, emissions from agriculture have been consistently larger-about 1.2 Gt CO 2 yr −1 in 2010-than those from net deforestation.

Potential climate forcing of land use and land cover change

“…3, 4). Therefore, while LULCC accounted for about 20 % of anthropogenic CO 2 -equivalent emissions in 2010 (Tubiello et al, 2013), its contribution to the anthropogenic RF is 40 % (±16 %). We can express this enhancement factor as the ratio of the sum RF to the CO 2 RF for LULCC, divided by the same ratio for other anthropogenic activities (FF+), or E = (RF sum / RF CO 2 ) LULCC / (RF sum / RF CO 2 ) FF+ .…”

“…Nevertheless, there is some recognition of the importance of evaluating emissions of non-CO 2 greenhouse gases attributable to LULCC separately from fossil fuel emissions for targeting emission reduction policies (Tubiello et al, 2013). Less attention is given to forcings from short-lived atmospheric species that are affected by LULCC.…”

Current available strategies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in livestock systems: an animal welfare perspective

“…According to previous work (i.e. Potter et al, 1984), if this quantity is supplemented continuously (>7 days) this could be toxic to cattle, whereas other literature established that this range is below the risk threshold (van Zijderveld et al, 2011). These contrasting results suggest that further investigation to define the appropriate dosage and method of administration to prevent ionophore toxicity in cattle is warranted.…”

“…Beef and dairy production account for the majority of emissions, contributing 41% and 20%, respectively, of the sector's direct emissions (Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), 2013), much higher than pig and poultry which contribute 9% and 8%, respectively. Enteric fermentation is considered a primary source of global anthropogenic methane (CH 4 ) emissions, and in 2010 was estimated to be responsible for 30% to 40% of world-wide livestock emissions (CO 2 -eq/year) followed by nitrous oxide (N 2 O) (between 17% and 27%) (Weiss and Leip, 2012;Tubiello et al, 2013). N 2 O comes from transformations within management and deposition of animal (ruminants and monogastrics) manures on pastures (O'Mara, 2011).…”

“…Nitrates can replace CO 2 as an electron acceptor, forming ammonia, instead of CH 4 , as an alternative H 2 sink in the rumen (McAllister and Newbold, 2008). Recent research with sheep (Nolan et al, 2010;van Zijderveld et al, 2010) and cattle (van Zijderveld et al, 2011;Hulshof et al, 2012) has shown promising results with nitrate supplementation, indicating reductions in enteric CH 4 production, of up to 50%, especially when supplementing forage-based diets (Troy et al, 2015). However, nitrate must be supplemented with caution as it can be toxic above certain doses leading to methaemoglobinaemia and carcinogenesis (Sinderal and Milkowski, 2012).…”