A slowdown in grassland conversion, wet conditions and greater afforestation have accounted for a major lift in Australia’s efforts to reduce its red meat sector’s carbon footprint.
With five years to run on its target to becoming carbon neutral by 2030, the Australian red meat industry has released an update highlighting its continuing progress in reducing net greenhouse gas emissions.
But the data highlights relatively little change in total livestock emissions, with the reductions coming through carbon sequestration.
The CSIRO report reports a 78% reduction in net greenhouse gas emissions since 2005.
Total livestock-sourced GHG emissions from the red meat industry were 41.8 million tonnes of CO2 in 2021, with three-quarters claimed by free-range cattle, and sheep accounting for 20%.
That figure has remained relatively unchanged over the past eight years, averaging 43 million tonnes a year over that time.
The big impact on the net reductions has instead come through the major lift in forested area to absorb that methane, with the increase absorbing 41 million tonnes in 2021, compared to an average of about 25 million tonnes a year prior to 2021.
There has also been a significant drop in the area cleared for grassland, down to only 40% of the previous six-year average.
The report authors have also noted future reductions in emissions to achieve the net zero target under the Carbon Neutral 2030 (CN30) goal will require a reduction in gross animal emissions.
A 2022 New Zealand report based on an AgResearch study found NZ sheepmeat has a carbon footprint of 15kg of carbon per kg of sheep meat and 22kg per kg for beef, putting it among the lowest in the world.
Further work identified that over 1998 to 2018, considering carbon sequestration, NZ’s sheepmeat was arguably already “climate neutral”, and beef was on its way to that.
A controversial AUT report published in 2020 determined the 2.0 million hectares of sheep and beef land contained woody vegetation that also bought drystock farming close to being carbon neutral, offsetting between 63% and 118% of emissions.
But a later Ministry for the Environment report found this figure was nearer a 30% offset.
While not acknowledged in the Australian report, the ability of that country’s red meat sector to achieve a reduction in total gross emissions may also become more challenging in coming years, given events subsequent to the 2021 survey period.
In 2021 Australia’s livestock population had reached a low point due to extensive culling in response to the extreme drought conditions, which broke in 2020.
Both cattle and sheep numbers have lifted significantly since the report’s data period.
Sheep have moved from 71 million in 2021 to 79 million in 2023, and cattle have lifted from 23 million head to 29.5 million in 2023.
MLA project manager Julia Waite said the variability of the Australian climate also means sequestration volumes may decline when conditions trend back to a drier El Niño pattern.
“Novel interventions like low-methane pastures, supplements and genetic indexes are likely to play a bigger role in the later part of the decade, provided they are commercially viable with co-benefits for the whole farm business,” Waite said.
“Over time this can reduce the reliance on sequestration.”
But the report’s authors have acknowledged the industry still lacks commercialised options for direct livestock methane reduction, particularly solutions suitable for extensive grazing systems where most methane emissions originate, including Northern Australian beef systems.
While livestock methane emissions account for 44% of Australia’s total methane emissions, they remain significantly less than NZ’s.
For 2021, Australian red meat’s proportion of the country’s total methane emissions was only 6.69%, down from 23% back in 2005.
This compares to NZ’s red meat sector emissions, which account for about half NZ’s total livestock emissions, themselves half the country’s total GHG emissions.
