Reducing global cattle production by just 13 percent and turning it over to nature could lock away the equivalent to three years’ worth of global carbon emissions.
Curbing how much beef we eat is one of the most promising approaches to control our climate impact. But there are questions around where and how that should happen, since livestock is a critical source of protein for millions in many parts of the world.
Now a group of researchers at a New York University-led team have pinpointed a possible solution: in a survey of global cattle pasturelands, they reveal that wealthy and middle-income countries hold the greatest potential to transform former grazing lands into carbon-sequestering habitats. Remarkably, reducing global cattle production by 13 percent and letting nature take its course in these places could lock away 125 gigatons of CO₂ - equivalent to three years’ worth of global carbon emissions; not just from cattle, but from all human actions.
The findings align with growing consensus that richer countries should shoulder the burden of emissions cuts - a point the researchers didn’t set out to make, but which emerged organically from their data.
The researchers found that pasturelands with high carbon-storing potential occurred in countries where cattle productivity per acre of pasture land wasn’t extraordinarily high. These sweet-spots tend to exist in high- and middle-income countries, including the United States, China, and Europe.
Taking a global view, the team calculates that if we focused rewilding in these high-income hotspots, it would lead to a 13 percent reduction in global beef, but in regions where it’s arguably not critical for nutrition. That would free up enough land to store 125 GtCO₂, whilst leaving cattle production elsewhere in the world - where in some places it may be essential -untouched.
This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be seeking to reduce beef consumption trends worldwide, the researchers caution. Nor should the carbon-sequestration potential of reforestation license the continued production of fossil fuels. The world needs a raft of approaches to tackle climate change, they are careful to emphasize.