May 1st, 2021

Agricultural emission priorities

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“Cutting methane is the strongest lever we have to slow climate change over the next 25 years”, said Inger Andersen, the UNEP Executive Director. 
Unlike CO2, which stays in the atmosphere for centuries, methane breaks down quickly and most is gone after a decade. The key is to reduce new sources of methane emissions e.g. more cows, more natural gas fields that leak, AND reduce methane emissions from current sources e.g. reduce methane per litre of milk or kg of meat, reduce the leak rate (currently 2.3%) from natural gas pipelines and wells.
Reducing methane from current sources buys us time to reduce CO2 emissions from energy, particularly in the low capital world.
Improving methane efficiency of livestock is a priority. Some technologies suggest methane efficiency can be improved up to 95%, and 30% near term. 
Reducing livestock can help, however to get to 95% improvement, you'd gut the New Zealand farming sector, and its economy, and the principles of social contract.
Hasten technologies that reduce methane embedded in output as a priority.