Citation: Kioumarsi, H., Fatiqin, A., & Shariman Yahaya, Z. (2025). Assessing Brazil's Animal Husbandry in the Context of COP3 Commitments. Research Communities by Springer Nature. https://communities.springernature.com/posts/assessing-brazil-s-animal-husbandry-in-the-context-of-cop3-commitments

Abstract

The livestock sector in Brazil, especially cattle, has been central to national development and debates concerning global greenhouse gas emissions since the Kyoto Protocol COP3 in 1997. This short review synthesizes the following elements: a) the Kyoto/COP3 policy context; b) trends and drivers of livestock-related emissions in Brazil; c) technological and management mitigation options; and d) the role of Brazil's Low Carbon Agriculture plan, and related policies in moving toward carbon-neutral livestock systems. Because of the important of this subject, we intend to present an integrative evidence-based assessment for the research community and policy stakeholders.

Keywords: Animal husbandry; Brazil; COP3

Introduction

The United Nations has introduced a set of sustainable development goals that relate to multiple sectors from medical science to agriculture, and animal husbandry. Animal husbandry is an evolving field that continues to adopt new methods and techniques in areas such as nutrition, breeding, and disease control. As it changes, it continuously impacts its surrounding environment. In this regard, the livestock industry worldwide has been characterized both as a contributor to food security and as a source of GHG emissions. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, agriculture contributes a relatively high amounts of anthropogenic GHG emissions globally, while livestock contribute the largest share of global CH₄ emissions, especially through enteric fermentation. Brazil is one of the largest cattle-producing countries, playing a very important role in this equation. Estimates are that this country has a herd of more than 230 million heads of cattle, placing it as responsible for about 14% of the total world beef production. The adoption of the Kyoto Protocol during COP3 in 1997 was a milestone in global climate governance. While developing countries like Brazil were not subject to the Protocol's binding emissions reduction targets, its different mechanisms opened up avenues for the participation of developing countries in emission mitigation via sustainable development. For Brazil, this also established the grounds for future climate policies that combined agricultural and environmental objectives. In the last twenty years, the Brazilian government implemented a series of initiatives aiming to reduce emissions caused by land use, forestry, and agriculture. Among them, the Low-Carbon Agriculture Plan (ABC), launched in 2010 and updated as ABC+ in 2020, constitutes one of the key policy instruments addressing sustainable intensification, better pasture management, and the adoption of climate-smart technologies. This review is able to assess how Brazil’s animal husbandry sector has evolved under these frameworks and to what extent it aligns with the carbon-neutral aspirations inspired by Kyoto’s legacy.

Agricultural Emissions: Framing the Problem

The Kyoto Protocol set legally binding GHG reduction targets for industrialized countries and added the prospect of flexible mechanisms for developing nations. Even though Brazil was not committed to binding targets under the Protocol, its domestic climate strategies have taken a new turn due to this document. It encouraged the development of mechanisms like the Clean Development Mechanism, enabling emission-reduction projects in developing countries. This structure opened ways for further national policies involving agriculture and livestock within the scope of Brazil's mitigation portfolio.

Livestock Emissions

The cattle sector in Brazil is both a powerhouse for the economy and for GHG emissions. Methane contributions come mostly from the enteric fermentation, while manure management and feed production add to the total GHG footprint. Agriculture accounts for about 70% of Brazil's methane emissions, dominated by the production of bovine cattle. It has varied with the expansion of herds, degradation of pastures, and changes in export demand. The result is that the livestock sector remains a focal point of Brazil's Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement. Therefore, such orientations represent black hole solutions without scalar hair in a most general setting.

Mitigation

Several research articles put forward mitigation options for Brazilian livestock. The key strategies developed:

Feed and dietary management: The use of lipid supplementation, nitrates, and feed additives decreases enteric methane formation. Adoption challenges include cost, regulatory approval, and awareness by farmers.

Pasture improvement and rotational grazing: Higher-quality forage increases animal productivity while reducing methane produced per kilogram of beef.

Manure management: Anaerobic digestion can be applied to more intensive dairy and feedlot systems to capture methane for biogas production, providing energy co-benefits.

Genetic selection for low-emitting animals in conjunction with improved reproductive management allows for a long-term methane reduction potential.

Policy

On April 20, 2021, the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture announced a Plan for Climate Change Adaptation and Low Carbon, called ABC+, and seeks to consolidate Brazilian agriculture on the basis of sustainable, resilient, and productive systems. Brazil's ABC, launched in 2010, was among the first programs in the developing world for dealing with agricultural GHG emissions, focusing on sustainable farming, pasture restoration, and integrated crop-livestock-forest systems. The ABC+ Plan (2020–2030) extends these goals, striving for a reduction of up to 1.1 billion tons of CO₂ equivalent by 2030. These initiatives take a two-pronged approach: offering financial incentives while also providing technical training to producers to help them make the transition toward sustainable systems. While progress has been made, challenges remain: access to credit, monitoring of emission reductions, and technical knowledge in some rural areas are still limited. Scaling these out to smallholders and regional cooperatives is necessary to expand the scope of such transformations significantly.

Challenges and Opportunities

Significant challenges impede Brazil's move to carbon-neutral livestock, including limited access to rural extension services, fragmented information on livestock emissions, and a lack of verification mechanisms that fit into international carbon markets. Opportunities abound; however, the wide pastureland of Brazil offers unparalleled opportunities for carbon sequestration through soil restoration and through the adoption of silvopastoral systems. Silvopastoral systems combine tree growing with the production of animals. These systems usually include pasture systems containing trees that are widely planted throughout the pasture and now can be found widely around the world. It should be also mentioned that the growing international demand for "low-carbon beef" and corporate sustainability policies has created market-driven incentives that could speed up the process.

Conclusions

The livestock sector has undergone a great deal of transformation in Brazil since the Kyoto Protocol, reflecting an increasing congruence between agricultural productivity and environmental stewardship. However, full carbon neutrality has still not been achieved. Future priorities include:

1. Expanding region-specific research on methane mitigation under tropical grazing systems.
2. Improved financial mechanisms for scaling up sustainable technologies.
3. Encouraging multi-stakeholder collaboration among farmers, policymakers, and the private sector.

With sustained commitment and innovation, animal husbandry in Brazil can become a model of low-carbon development for the rest of the world.

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