B.CCH.2126 - Red meat greenhouse gas emissions update 2024

Summary

Understanding the sources of, and changes in, greenhouse gas emissions from red meat production is important to help the red meat industry achieve its sustainability goals. This current project provides an updated estimate of emissions from red meat production in Australia from 2005 to 2024.

Objectives

The overarching project objectives are listed below, with all objectives fully completed.

•    Calculate the GWP100 (AR5) greenhouse gas footprint of Australian red meat production and present the information:
o    By source of emissions
o    By source and by commodity (current year) 
o    Net emissions by commodity 
o    Net emissions by production sector (farm, feedlot, processing) 
•    Calculate net emissions for red meat of key alternate metrics: GWP20, GTP100, GTP20, GWP100 (AR6), GWP*, radiative forcing
•    Calculate emissions by gas type for methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide in absolute volume (megatonnes) and GWP100 (megatonnes CO2e)

Key findings

Net emissions from the Australian red meat industry in 2024 were 58 Mt CO2-equivalents.

Net emissions from the red meat industry have decreased by 61% since 2005. These changes are largely due to a reduction in the clearing and reclearing of forest and sparse woody vegetation, and an increase in vegetation growth and carbon storage. 
More recent changes in annual emissions are associated with changes to the number of livestock in response to climate conditions.

Benefits to industry

Annual reporting enables understanding of the red meat industries net emissions profile and contribution to national emissions, and can inform research and development priorities, as well as other strategic actions.

Future research

Yes. The report provides a comprehensive yet simple report of red meat industry's emissions profile. There are efficiencies of working with an incumbent provider that allows for a consistent output, that can be used in Strategic KPI reporting, the ABSF, SSF frameworks, as well as Australian Good Meat content.