This policy briefing from the Changing Markets Foundation argues that it will be very difficult for the European Union to meet its 2030 methane reduction targets without bringing in extra measures in the meat and dairy industries. 36% of the EU’s methane reductions could come from the agricultural sector, it estimates.

This paper examines how uncertainties and assumptions behind assessments of global livestock methane emissions play out as research is translated into policy. The authors argue that the simplification of emissions data (during the aggregation of life cycle analyses into global sectoral estimates) results in a misleading and narrow picture of ruminant livestock.

Immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors are needed, says this report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). While global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, there have been significant decreases over the last decade in the cost of important low-emissions technologies such as solar energy, wind energy and lithium-ion batteries, and policies on climate mitigation are expanding and have avoided some emissions.

This report from the UK’s Nature Friendly Farming Network sets out information on how farming land is currently used in the UK, on greenhouse gas emissions from different farming types, and on how farms can use nature-based solutions to reduce emissions while improving farming resilience in the face of climate change.

This report from the UK-based Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions quantifies greenhouse gas emissions arising from the UK’s food sector. It finds that when emissions are accounted for using a consumption basis (which accounts for emissions associated with imported and exported food), emissions are 52% higher than when a territorial basis is used (only including emissions generated within the country).

This blog post by Saloni Shah and Dan Blaustein-Rejto of US-based think-tank The Breakthrough Institute argues that decreases in the price of plant-based meat alternatives by 10% will likely only have a small impact on cattle production (a 0.15% decrease in the US) and emissions from global cattle production (equivalent to a decrease of 1.4% in US beef production). They conclude that while continuing to improve plant-based meat alternatives is important in order for them to gain a larger market share, it is also important to work on methods and technologies to reduce the environmental impacts of livestock production.

This paper estimates the climate implications of replacing 90% of conventional agricultural production with electrically-powered microbial biomass cultivation. If such a replacement took place before a widespread transition to renewable energy, economy-wide emissions could in fact increase as energy would have been directed away from replacing fossil fuels. If conducted after the transition to renewable energy, the replacement could help to mitigate climate change, producing cooling of between 0.22°C and 0.85°C depending on assumptions about socioeconomic pathways.

Carbon Brief has published a summary of the key outcomes from 2021’s COP26 climate conference held in Glasgow. The Glasgow Climate Pact agreed by the summit “resolves to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C”. TABLE readers may be particularly interested in the summary’s coverage of the Koronivia joint work on agriculture, deforestation pledges, and the global methane pledge.

This report from the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation gives an overview of how agriculture and land use feature in 85 new or updated NDCs (nationally determined contributions to the Paris Agreement’s climate targets). As of 31 July 2021, 95% of NDCs include adaptation in agricultural sectors; 95% include mitigation measures in agriculture, land use or forestry; and 38% reference women or other marginalised groups in the agricultural sector. Mitigation measures focus primarily on forestry (79%), with 51% covering crops and 36% covering the livestock sector.