Global milk production, processing and transportation accounts for just 2.7% of the world’s man-made greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report.
The finding comes from the ‘Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Dairy Sector’, which was released by the UN’s Food & Agriculture Organization this week. When emissions relating to meat production from dairy-related cattle are included, the figure is 4%. The new report adds that milk produced in Western Europe, including the UK, has one of the smallest carbon ‘hoof prints’, at around 1.5 kg of CO2 equivalents per kg of milk produced, compared with a global average of 2.4 kg.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Dairy Sector is a follow up to the 2006 publication ‘Livestock’s Long Shadow’, which gave a generic figure for worldwide livestock emissions of 18% of the total.
Hayley Campbell Gibbons, the NFU’s chief dairy adviser, said: “I’m extremely pleased that the FAO has published a report which finally draws a line in the sand under the generic emission figures which have dogged the livestock industry for so long.
“The dairy report is an important step forward in providing more detailed and sophisticated information on regional differences in emissions and between different agricultural sectors. In doing so the FAO recognises that some countries are performing better than others when it comes to assessing the environmental impact of meat and milk production and that British dairy farmers are already working hard to improve their environmental hoof print.
“We have always known that because of our climate, geography and knowledge British dairy farmers are ideally suited to produce dairy products in the most efficient and environmentally sustainable way. With the demand for dairy products growing at a rapid rate this report proves that increasing dairy and meat production in those parts of the world, like the UK, where we are able to produce food with a lower environmental impact makes sense.
“Climate change is a global issue that needs a global solution and our dairy farmers are part of that solution.”
Read an NFU briefing on the report here.
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