Abstract
With increasing global population and income, the demand for livestock products continues to grow and is likely to grow in future as well. This raises concerns about the implications of such growth for the environment. A well-known Computable General Equilibrium model (CGE), GTAP- BIO, is used to project the growth of livestock output between 2004 and 2022 and to estimate the land use changes and associated Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. Results indicate that the increased livestock output leads to considerable increase in pasture (about 45 million hectares) and decrease in forest area (about 44 million hectares) between 2004 and 2022. Estimated emissions associated with this change are about 20 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2 e) during 2004-2022 or an annual average of 1.1 billion tons. Results also indicate that a significant portion of the emissions (about 11%) can be reduced if consumer preferences could be altered. In practice, this will require policy interventions that promote substitution of non-ruminant for ruminant meat products.
Highlights
With growing concern about the climate change, potential sources of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions mitigation are being identified
The sources of GHG emissions from the livestock sector can be segregated into two broad categories: 1) emissions that emanate from land use changes due to livestock production; typically when forest land is converted into pasture or cropland to accommodate increased livestock production, it results in increased GHG emissions due to land clearing and reduced long term carbon sequestration; 2) emissions which are attributed to non-land use change sources such as enteric fermentation, feed production and processing, manure handling, and processing and transportation of animal products
China-Hong Kong (CHIHKG) and INDIA are the regions with the greatest increases in livestock output
Summary
With growing concern about the climate change, potential sources of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions mitigation are being identified. The livestock sector has received considerable attention in this regard as the sector reportedly contributes significantly to human-induced GHG emissions [1]-[3]. How to cite this paper: Dhoubhadel, S.P., Taheripour, F. and Stockton, M.C. (2016) Livestock Demand, Global Land Use Changes, and Induced Greenhouse Gas Emissions. The global demand for livestock products has grown over the years and is likely continue that growth in the future [4]. Increasing overall livestock output has implications for the environment. The sources of GHG emissions from the livestock sector can be segregated into two broad categories: 1) emissions that emanate from land use changes due to livestock production; typically when forest land is converted into pasture or cropland to accommodate increased livestock production, it results in increased GHG emissions due to land clearing and reduced long term carbon sequestration; 2) emissions which are attributed to non-land use change sources such as enteric fermentation, feed production and processing, manure handling, and processing and transportation of animal products
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