Climate mitigation

Agriculture contributes approximately 13.5% of total greenhouse gas emissions. The livestock sector is responsible for over one third of the emissions from agriculture. Thus, livestock has a key role to play in greenhouse gas mitigation.

We collaborate with multiple international organisations to identify opportunities for agriculture, in particular livestock, to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.

We participate in the working group for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

• We contributed to the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Uses chapter of the IPCC Fifth Assessment – Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change
• We will represent Australia in the Land Report for the IPCC Sixth Assessment.

We work with international organisations such as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and multiple universities to identify a preliminary global target for reducing emissions from agriculture. We found, as presented by Wollenberg et al. (2016), that plausible agricultural development pathways with mitigation co-benefits deliver only 21–40% of needed mitigation. The target indicates that more transformative technical and policy options will be needed, such as methane inhibitors and finance for new practices.

Contact Mario Herrero for more information.