FCRN member ffinlo Costain has published a response to the paper Climate change: ‘no get out of jail free card’ (summarised on the FCRN website here). Costain argues that biological methane emissions - such as those from grazing livestock - can be “warming neutral” as long as they fall by 10% by 2050. Citing Oxford climate scientist Myles Allen, Costain argues that sharply cutting ruminant numbers would only deliver a warming reduction of 0.1ºC at most, which would be outweighed within a few years by continuing carbon dioxide emissions.
Reference
Costain, F. (2020). The contribution of methane to warming. The Veterinary Record, 186(5), p.161.
Read the letter here. See also the Foodsource building block Agricultural methane and its role as a greenhouse gas.
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