Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Key Laboratory for Environmental Pollution Prediction and Control, College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China.
Environ Sci Technol. 2022 Aug 16;56(16):11256-11265. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.2c03509. Epub 2022 Jul 28.
Increasing worldwide demand for beef products promotes international beef trade. Cattle raising and beef products as significant sources of methane (CH) emissions have received widespread concerns. However, the factors driving CH emissions embodied in the global beef trade have not been quantified. Here, we evaluate international beef trade-induced CH emissions and assess the contribution of the five driving factors to changes in CH emissions embodied in the beef trade from 2000 to 2018. We show that driven by increasing population and meat demands, the global beef trade-induced CH emissions increased continuously in the past two decades, with total emissions of 9337.3 Gg in 2018. The drivers that could potentially reduce trade-related emissions are emission intensities in beef exporting countries and beef importing countries' selections of their beef suppliers. Together, these two driving factors reduced CH emissions by 923.5 Gg from 2012 to 2018. Results suggest that efforts should be made to reduce the emission intensity via improving cattle feed and feeding practices in beef exporting countries. Beef importing countries could also contribute to CH emission reduction by selecting those beef exporting countries with low emission intensities.
全球对牛肉产品需求的增加促进了国际牛肉贸易。养牛业和牛肉产品作为甲烷（CH）排放的重要来源引起了广泛关注。然而，全球牛肉贸易中蕴含的 CH 排放的驱动因素尚未量化。在这里，我们评估了国际牛肉贸易引起的 CH 排放，并评估了五个驱动因素对 2000 年至 2018 年牛肉贸易中蕴含的 CH 排放变化的贡献。我们表明，由于人口和肉类需求的增加，过去二十年来，全球牛肉贸易引起的 CH 排放持续增加，2018 年排放量达到 9337.3 Gg。有潜力减少贸易相关排放的驱动因素是牛肉出口国和牛肉进口国的牛肉供应商选择的排放强度。这两个驱动因素共同减少了 2012 年至 2018 年期间 923.5 Gg 的 CH 排放。研究结果表明，应通过提高牛肉出口国的牛饲料和饲养实践来努力降低排放强度。牛肉进口国也可以通过选择排放强度较低的牛肉出口国来为减少 CH 排放做出贡献。
