Greenhouse gas inventory: estimated sheep emissions and their mitigation

Analysis of emissions associated with sheep in the Greenhouse Gas Inventory (Smart inventory) and potential mitigation.


Footnotes

1. See Moxey & Thomson (2021) Disaggregating headline Smart Inventory figures. Report to SG-RESAS.

2. e.g., Warwick HRI (2007), Moxey (2016); as used by Moxey & Thomson (2021).

3. e.g., Jones et al., (2014), Bhatt & Abbassi (2021)

4. ADAS (2012) reported (albeit a decade ago) that the mean age of slaughter ranged from less than 75 to over 370 days but had an overall mean of c.200 days (c.6.5 months) with mean age being higher for hill (221 days) than upland (195 days) than lowland (180 days) flocks.

5. See e.g. Rodriguez-Ledesmaet et al., (2011); Pollott (2014); Defra (2015 & 2020)

6. This could potentially be estimated using information on the distribution of different livestock species across different types of grazing but may be less helpful than a whole farm or whole industry perspective.

7. See e.g., Jones et al., (2014 & 2015); Eory et al. (2020)

8. e.g., https://www.nzagrc.org.nz/methane.html

9. e.g., Hegarty et al. (2010); Jones et al. (2014, 2014)

10. The treatment of peatlands within the LULUCF Inventory is in the process of being updated. Current Inventory figures exclude most peatland emissions, but the 2019 figures will include them. This means that baseline figures will change but also, crucially, that restoration actions will be registered as contributing to net mitigation. Estimated emissions from bare peat alone are c.4.8Mt to c.7.4Mt CO2e See Adaptation Indicators (climatexchange.org.uk)

Contact

Email: are.futureruralframework@gov.scot

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