BMPA has joined agricultural organisations from across the world to issue a joint statement calling for countries to follow best scientific practice and take a split gas approach when reporting long- and short-lived greenhouse gas emissions.
The statement represents unprecedented global consensus among industry groups and follows earlier similar calls from scientists.
The statement, by organisations from Argentina, Australia, Cambodia, Canada, Colombia, Georgia, India, Ireland, Kenya, New Zealand, South Africa, the United States, the UK, and Uruguay says a split gas approach is needed to more accurately reflect the contribution of the agricultural sector to climate change.
It calls on parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to use the split gas approach in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) – the targets reported on internationally under the Paris Agreement on climate change.
It says: “The current practice of using GWP100 to report NDCs creates ambiguity by obscuring the warming impacts of the different gases. Although GWP100 works well when summing or comparing the warming impact of various long-lived GHGs (such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide), it does not accurately represent the warming impact of short-lived GHGs (such as biogenic methane).
“The science is clear: emissions of long-lived gases must reach net zero by reducing as far as possible and then balancing with carbon storage or removals to prevent further warming. In contrast, emissions of short-lived gases, like biogenic methane, only need to decline gradually to have the same effect. This fundamental difference in behaviour needs to be recognised in climate policy, and adopting a split gas approach is the most effective way to do so.”
It notes that a split gas approach does not limit the options available to policymakers, “as ambitious mitigation approaches for both long-lived and short-lived GHGs are possible with a split gas approach. Instead, it focuses policy on the warming impact of the GHGs and, therefore, on the warming impact between sectors.”
The statement also advocates for the use of warming-based metrics relevant to respective long- and short-lived gases, which have already been recognised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as providing better estimates of warming impact.
All organisations involved will continue advocating for split gas reporting with their individual governments and BMPA will be leading the charge here in the UK.
We are the UKs largest trade body for the meat industry and provide expert advice on trade issues, bespoke technical advice and access to government policy makers
We are proud to count businesses of all sizes and specialties as members. They range from small, family run abattoirs serving local customers to the largest meat processing companies responsible for supplying some of our best-loved brands to shops and supermarkets.
We are further strengthened by our associate Members who work in industries that support and supply our meat processing companies.
We are the voice of the British meat industry.
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