New studies provide the first accurate estimates of greenhouse gas emissions from East African livestock

ILRI scientist John Goopy describes ILRI’s Mazingira Centre research on livestock and greenhouse gas emissions to ILRI partners at the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security and leads them on a tour of Mazingira’s Greenhouse Gas Laboratory, in Nairobi, Kenya (photo credit: CCAFS/S Kilungu).

The following excerpts are from an article ILRI scientist John Goopy published in late May 2018 reporting on the results of two recent studies that provide more accurate estimates of the greenhouse gases emitted by East African smallholder livestock systems.

‘. . . Presently estimates of GHGs from African livestock systems mainly rely on default protocols (TIER I) developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). These use data from livestock systems in Europe and the US (themselves over 20 years old) combined with expert opinion. The IPCC itself stresses the desirability of more accurate assessment of important sectors or key…