Emanuela-Adina COCIȘ, Ioan SURDU
1 Centre of Mountain Economy “CE-MONT”, National Institute for Economic Research
“Costin C. Kirițescu”, Romanian Academy, Petreni, no. 49, 725700,Vatra Dornei, România.
E-mail: adinaemanuelacocis@gmail.com
DOI: https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.10397397
SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4808396
Abstract
Increased concentrations of CH4 (methane), CO2 (carbon dioxide) și N2O (nitrous oxide), known as greenhouse gases (GHG) with major implications in climate change phenomenon, are raising serious environmental concerns. Animal husbandry sector has developed significantly over the last decades in order to meet the growing needs of the population when it comes to meat consumption. This fact implicitly translates into the generation of much higher concentrations of pollutants that are being released into the air. The scientific literature highlights that there is a link between the livestock sector (bovine, sheep, pigs and poultry) and GHG emissions, sector which is globally responsible for 18% of total anthropogenic GHG emissions.
The paper makes a radiography and a synthesis of scientific data and information on the current state of the art of research regarding the implications and contribution of animal husbandry/livestock sector in the generation of GHG, while proposing mitigation methods in order to counteract the negative effects. The research methodology consisted in screening the specific academic references regarding the approached research topic, followed by the selection and the review of the most significant ones.
The results confirm the central hypothesis that the livestock sector, animal husbandry in this case, is an important source of greenhouse gases, being mandatory to adopt strict management measures aimed at keeping these emissions under control.
Keywords:
greenhouse gases, animal husbandry sector, emissions, CH4, N2O, CO2, mitigation methods