This is the first time that FAO has released its own global estimates of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU), contributing to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Agricultural emissions from crop and livestock production grew from 4.7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents* (CO2 eq) in 2001 to over 5.3 billion tonnes in 2011, a 14 percent increase. The increase occurred mainly in developing countries, due to an expansion of total agricultural outputs.
Meanwhile, net GHG emissions due to land use change and deforestation registered a nearly 10 percent decrease over the 2001-2010 period, averaging some 3 billion tonnes CO2 eq/yr over the decade. This was the result of reduced levels of deforestation and increases in the amount of atmospheric carbon being sequestered in many countries.
Averaged over the 2001-2010 period, agriculture, forestry and other land uses (AFOLU) emissions break down as follows:
- 5 billion tonnes CO2 eq/yr from crop and livestock production
- 4 billion tonnes CO2 eq/yr due to net forest conversion to other lands (a proxy for deforestation)
- 1 billion tonnes CO2 eq/yr from degraded peatlands
- 0.2 billion tonnes CO2 eq/yr by biomass fires
FAO's data based on country reports show that while those emissions continue to increase, they are not growing as fast as emissions from fossil fuel use in other sectors, so the share of AFOLU out of total anthropogenic emissions is actually decreasing over time.
Click here to read the complete article at fao.org
Click here for the complete report on the data (PDF)
