GS Paper III

News Excerpt:

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is set to present a plan for emission reduction that will include dietary advice for the rich world, asking its people to curb their meat intake.

CoP 28 to the UNFCCC in Dubai:

FAO roadmap for the global agrifood industry will be a part of the discussion at CoP-28 in Dubai: 

• A restraint advisory for heavy consumers is likely part of an FAO roadmap for the global agrifood industry to align with the Paris Pact’s goal of keeping our planet no warmer than 1.5° Celsius above its pre-industrial level.

• As per FAO, 14% of all greenhouse gas emissions from human activity come from meat and dairy production. 
• That is a significant amount. Diets pertaining to humans have not been discussed much. However, no important source of emissions can be disregarded in the fight against global warming.

Not all of the food sector’s emissions are from animal food chains:

• According to one study, these account for about 57% (including livestock feed), while 29% can be traced to plant-based foods and 14% to other related activities. 
• This gas gets far less attention than carbon dioxide, but it also adds to the crisis of an atmospheric heat trap.
• Fluorinated gases and nitrous oxide are even less known as culprits.

The GHG inventory covers the seven direct greenhouse gases under the Kyoto Protocol:

• Carbon dioxide (CO2)
• Methane (CH4)
• Nitrous oxide (N2O)
• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)
• Perfluorocarbons (PFCs)
• Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6)
• Nitrogen trifluoride (NF3)

Why is methane a concern?

• Methane is a relatively short-lived gas with an atmospheric lifetime of around a decade, whereas carbon dioxide affects the climate for hundreds of years but the former does its damage swiftly.
• Global warming potential: It is a metric used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). One tonne of methane exhaust is likely to be the equivalent of over 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide over the course of a century.
• There is also an estimate of the heat caused by the gas. The 2021 Sixth IPCC Assessment Report says that anthropogenic methane accounts for almost a third of the planet’s warming observed so far.
•  Among livestock, these emissions are the gaseous waste product of digestion.
• A 2018 study found sheep, goats, beef cattle and buffaloes to be big emitters.

The solution proposed for Methane mitigation:

• Methane mitigation paths for large-scale cattle farms, which could opt for dietary and rumen manipulation of animals, manure intervention and other practices. 
• Synthetic meat:  Laboratories and food chains in the West have also begun churning out all kinds of synthetic meat. Proposed substitutes include cultured meat, which uses technology to produce animal muscle cells through tissue culture in a laboratory. 

This solution is suitable for the West but not for India:

• Food innovation in the West looks increasingly likely to explore ways of retaining high-meat diets without the world’s gaseous heat trap worsening. If cattle rearing to feed the West can be scaled down, sustainability could well come within sight for this sector.
• In India, the methane story differs, as livestock rearing is small and unorganized, with red meat eaten in low quantities per capita. While the rich world must move, there’s no justification for such diet advice aimed at Indians.

What’s crucial, globally, as the FAO campaign rolls out, is that nobody’s diet preferences are trampled. There should be no reproach, let alone stigma, directed at those who consume red meat.

Mains PYQ

Q. Discuss global warming and mention its effects on the global climate. Explain the control measures to bring down the level of greenhouse gases which cause global warming, in the light of the Kyoto Protocol, 1997.   (UPSC 2022)

Q. Which of the following statements are correct about the deposits of ‘methane hydrate’? (UPSC 2019)

1. Global warming might trigger the release of methane gas from these deposits.
2. Large deposits of ‘methane hydrate’ are found in Arctic Tundra and under the seafloor.
3. Methane in atmosphere oxidizes to carbon dioxide after a decade or two.

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a). 1 and 2 only

(b). 2 and 3 only

(c). 1 and 3 only

(d). 1, 2 and 3