Climate Change

If human production and consumption systems that rely on the inhumane treatment of animals are the dominant driver of biodiversity loss, it follows that the integration of animal welfare as an essential policy concern will contribute significantly to the effort to arrest biodiversity loss and work towards the restoration and regeneration of our ecosystems.

While climate change itself is increasingly recognised as a major and growing driver of biodiversity loss, UNEP and others note that defaunation, involving the reduction of terrestrial and marine vertebrate animals as a result of hunting, fishing, trade and habitat loss, significantly erodes carbon capture and the carbon storage capacity of our forests and oceans. Recent studies have estimated that approximately half of the carbon capture capacity of forests and oceans, equivalent to 60 percent of global anthropogenic emissions, are directly threatened by the overexploitation of terrestrial and marine wildlife and limitations to their free movement.  

Analysis by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has found that total emissions from global livestock are 7.1 gigatonnes of CO₂-equivalent per year, representing 14.5 percent of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Predictions are that under a business-as-usual scenario, the livestock sector will account for 70 percent of the sustainable level of GHG emissions by 2050. And according to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), “approximately 25 percent of the globe’s GHG emissions come from land clearing, crop production and fertilisation, with animal-based food contributing about 75 percent of that. Intensive agriculture has increased food production at the cost of regulating and non-material contributions from nature”. 

Higher welfare, lower input systems that decreasingly depend on the production of animal feed must be championed. Grass-based and mixed-farm systems have much greater capacities for carbon sequestration, local breeds adaptable to local climate conditions have lower emissions per unit of production, and healthy livestock produce more and emit less. According to UNEP, “reducing intensively farmed meat consumption is good for people and the planet.”