Opportunities and Challenges for Carbon Trading from Livestock Sector

Abstract

Livestock are important source of GHG emissions accounting for about 28 % of the global anthropogenic methane emissions. The participation of this sector in the carbon markets is, however, in nascent stage, largely confined to animal waste management projects, although the emissions from enteric fermentation are several times more than that from manure. This chapter discusses the potential of generating carbon credits by improving the feed fermentation efficiency through nutritional interventions such as dietary manipulation and feed additives and increasing the productivity of animals through breeding and other long-term management strategies. There are several socioeconomic, institutional, and technical challenges for the stakeholders in successful formulation and implementation of such mitigation options from the perspective of carbon trading. As the global carbon trading system in one form or the other will be a fixture in the world economy for decades, it is imperative that the uptake of programmatic approaches to project development is increased and standardized approaches to baseline, additionality assessment, and activity-based monitoring methods underpinned by regionally specific field research are developed.