South America’s pasture intensification can increase beef production, reduce emissions by 30% and mitigate warming from methane by 2050
A limited understanding of the potential to reduce emissions and a lack of climate incentives hinder progress toward mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from beef production. This study explored the GHG mitigation potential in South America by evaluating nearly 30 beef cattle production system...
| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Formato: | Journal Article |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
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Nature Portfolio
2025
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| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/177295 |
| _version_ | 1855525108703035392 |
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| author | Costa-Junior, Ciniro Tedeschi, Luis Orlindo Gonzalez-Quintero, Ricardo Arango, Jacobo Burkart, Stefan Grosjean, Godefroy Dittmer, Kyle Michael Wollenberg, Eva K. Becoña, Gonzalo Micol, Laurent Palma, Eduardo Bustos Lagos, Alejandro Ramsay Loaiza, Sandra Insaurralde, Marcelo Guariniello, Luciano Faverin, Claudia Recavarren, Paulo Maria Tieri, Maria Paz Batista, Luiz Fernando Dias Baethgen, Walter Idupulapati, Rao |
| author_browse | Arango, Jacobo Baethgen, Walter Batista, Luiz Fernando Dias Becoña, Gonzalo Burkart, Stefan Costa-Junior, Ciniro Dittmer, Kyle Michael Faverin, Claudia Gonzalez-Quintero, Ricardo Grosjean, Godefroy Guariniello, Luciano Idupulapati, Rao Insaurralde, Marcelo Lagos, Alejandro Ramsay Loaiza, Sandra Micol, Laurent Palma, Eduardo Bustos Recavarren, Paulo Maria Tedeschi, Luis Orlindo Tieri, Maria Paz Wollenberg, Eva K. |
| author_facet | Costa-Junior, Ciniro Tedeschi, Luis Orlindo Gonzalez-Quintero, Ricardo Arango, Jacobo Burkart, Stefan Grosjean, Godefroy Dittmer, Kyle Michael Wollenberg, Eva K. Becoña, Gonzalo Micol, Laurent Palma, Eduardo Bustos Lagos, Alejandro Ramsay Loaiza, Sandra Insaurralde, Marcelo Guariniello, Luciano Faverin, Claudia Recavarren, Paulo Maria Tieri, Maria Paz Batista, Luiz Fernando Dias Baethgen, Walter Idupulapati, Rao |
| author_sort | Costa-Junior, Ciniro |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | A limited understanding of the potential to reduce emissions and a lack of climate incentives hinder progress toward mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from beef production. This study explored the GHG mitigation potential in South America by evaluating nearly 30 beef cattle production systems across five key beef-producing countries (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay, and Uruguay). The study outlined a low-emission beef roadmap for this major beef producing region. Data from this study indicate that the current business-as-usual trajectory of improvements in South America’s beef cattle production is insufficient to reduce GHG emissions at a pace that aligns with the urgency of climate crisis. Results from this study show that scaling up existing practices -such as improved forages, rotational grazing, and feed supplementation- to match the performance of the region’s lowest-emission systems at 20 th percentile could deliver significant results. Emission intensities could decrease by 33–50% compared to the projected 2050 regional average (35 tons carbon dioxide equivalent/ton of carcass weight). This would flatten the emissions curve, cutting total emissions by 20–40% while simultaneously increasing beef production by 43%. With annual methane (CH 4 ) emission reductions by 1.5%, the warming effect could decrease by 70–90%, offering a transformative pathway to lower GHG emissions from beef production. This emissions trajectory offers a feasible path toward net-zero warming from beef production, primarily through sustained reductions in CH 4 emissions intensity and absolute emissions as systems become more production efficient. These findings highlight the need and an opportunity for a drastic reduction in emissions from beef cattle production and can foster collaboration among conservation, industry, and finance stakeholders towards a common climate-oriented beef production agenda. |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace177295 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| publisherStr | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1772952025-12-02T10:59:51Z South America’s pasture intensification can increase beef production, reduce emissions by 30% and mitigate warming from methane by 2050 Costa-Junior, Ciniro Tedeschi, Luis Orlindo Gonzalez-Quintero, Ricardo Arango, Jacobo Burkart, Stefan Grosjean, Godefroy Dittmer, Kyle Michael Wollenberg, Eva K. Becoña, Gonzalo Micol, Laurent Palma, Eduardo Bustos Lagos, Alejandro Ramsay Loaiza, Sandra Insaurralde, Marcelo Guariniello, Luciano Faverin, Claudia Recavarren, Paulo Maria Tieri, Maria Paz Batista, Luiz Fernando Dias Baethgen, Walter Idupulapati, Rao beef cattle pasture improvement desarrollo bajo en emisiones methane emission sustainable production producción sostenible ganado de carne rotational grazing pastoreo rotacional emisión de metano mejora del pastizal A limited understanding of the potential to reduce emissions and a lack of climate incentives hinder progress toward mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from beef production. This study explored the GHG mitigation potential in South America by evaluating nearly 30 beef cattle production systems across five key beef-producing countries (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay, and Uruguay). The study outlined a low-emission beef roadmap for this major beef producing region. Data from this study indicate that the current business-as-usual trajectory of improvements in South America’s beef cattle production is insufficient to reduce GHG emissions at a pace that aligns with the urgency of climate crisis. Results from this study show that scaling up existing practices -such as improved forages, rotational grazing, and feed supplementation- to match the performance of the region’s lowest-emission systems at 20 th percentile could deliver significant results. Emission intensities could decrease by 33–50% compared to the projected 2050 regional average (35 tons carbon dioxide equivalent/ton of carcass weight). This would flatten the emissions curve, cutting total emissions by 20–40% while simultaneously increasing beef production by 43%. With annual methane (CH 4 ) emission reductions by 1.5%, the warming effect could decrease by 70–90%, offering a transformative pathway to lower GHG emissions from beef production. This emissions trajectory offers a feasible path toward net-zero warming from beef production, primarily through sustained reductions in CH 4 emissions intensity and absolute emissions as systems become more production efficient. These findings highlight the need and an opportunity for a drastic reduction in emissions from beef cattle production and can foster collaboration among conservation, industry, and finance stakeholders towards a common climate-oriented beef production agenda. 2025-10-13 2025-10-23T13:54:28Z 2025-10-23T13:54:28Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/177295 en Open Access application/pdf Nature Portfolio Ciniro Costa Jr., C.; Tedeschi, L.O.; Gonzalez-Quintero, R.; Arango, J.; Burkart, S.; Grosjean, G.; Dittmer, K.M.; Wollenberg, E.; Becoña, G.; Micol, L.; Bustos Palma, E.; Ramsay Lagos, A.; Loaiza, S.; Insaurralde, M.; Guariniello, L.; Faverin, C.; Recavarren, P.M.; Tieri, M.P.; Dias Batista, L.F.; Baethgen, W.; Idupulapati, R.M. (2025) South America’s pasture intensification can increase beef production, reduce emissions by 30% and mitigate warming from methane by 2050. Scientific Reports 15(1): ISSN: 2045-2322 |
| spellingShingle | beef cattle pasture improvement desarrollo bajo en emisiones methane emission sustainable production producción sostenible ganado de carne rotational grazing pastoreo rotacional emisión de metano mejora del pastizal Costa-Junior, Ciniro Tedeschi, Luis Orlindo Gonzalez-Quintero, Ricardo Arango, Jacobo Burkart, Stefan Grosjean, Godefroy Dittmer, Kyle Michael Wollenberg, Eva K. Becoña, Gonzalo Micol, Laurent Palma, Eduardo Bustos Lagos, Alejandro Ramsay Loaiza, Sandra Insaurralde, Marcelo Guariniello, Luciano Faverin, Claudia Recavarren, Paulo Maria Tieri, Maria Paz Batista, Luiz Fernando Dias Baethgen, Walter Idupulapati, Rao South America’s pasture intensification can increase beef production, reduce emissions by 30% and mitigate warming from methane by 2050 |
| title | South America’s pasture intensification can increase beef production, reduce emissions by 30% and mitigate warming from methane by 2050 |
| title_full | South America’s pasture intensification can increase beef production, reduce emissions by 30% and mitigate warming from methane by 2050 |
| title_fullStr | South America’s pasture intensification can increase beef production, reduce emissions by 30% and mitigate warming from methane by 2050 |
| title_full_unstemmed | South America’s pasture intensification can increase beef production, reduce emissions by 30% and mitigate warming from methane by 2050 |
| title_short | South America’s pasture intensification can increase beef production, reduce emissions by 30% and mitigate warming from methane by 2050 |
| title_sort | south america s pasture intensification can increase beef production reduce emissions by 30 and mitigate warming from methane by 2050 |
| topic | beef cattle pasture improvement desarrollo bajo en emisiones methane emission sustainable production producción sostenible ganado de carne rotational grazing pastoreo rotacional emisión de metano mejora del pastizal |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/177295 |
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