Agriculture plays a critical role in limiting the impact of climate change

| Article
Daniel Aminetzah Eric Bartels Nicolas Denis Kimberly Henderson Joshua Katz Peter Mannion
As a major contributor to methane and nitrous oxide emissions, agriculture is key to fighting global warming. But policy makers are largely ignoring it.

When it comes to climate change, the next decade is critical. Yet many of the numbers used to assess the impact of climate change look over the next 100 years. This approach fails to consider the short-term impact of certain greenhouse gases, particularly methane (see sidebar, “A note on the research”). As emissions from agriculture are largely made up of methane, discussions often ignore the sheer size of agriculture and its critical role in limiting the impact of climate change.

A note on the research

For the purposes of policy discussion and target-setting, greenhouse gases are generally measured by Global Warming Potential (GWP), a measure of how much energy the emissions of one ton of a gas will absorb over a given period, relative to the emissions of one ton of CO2.1 GWP are calculated for a specific time span, most commonly 100 years. But the lifetime for each GHG is different. As methane only lasts in the atmosphere for approximately 12 years, its GWP can be very different depending on the time span chosen.2 While one ton of methane has 28 times the effect of one ton of CO2 when measured at a 100-year GWP (AR5), at a 20-year GWP, the impact of methane is 84 times that of CO2. Given the importance of action and the short-term-gain potential of reducing agriculture’s methane emissions, our analysis is based on 20-year GWP.

In this infographic, we seek to tell a relatively simple story with far-reaching implications: agriculture accounts for a large, growing, and impactful share of global greenhouse gas emissions. Addressing these emissions is a massive challenge requiring the action of billions of people to change how we farm, what we eat, and how we manage our forests and natural carbon sinks.

Agriculture plays a critical role in limiting the impact of climate change
Agriculture plays a critical role in limiting the impact of climate change