Methane emissions rise in Brazil, the world's largest beef exporter

By Ana Mano

SAO PAULO, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Brazilian emissions of a potent greenhouse gas called methane increased 6% between 2020 and 2023, the year in which the world's largest beef exporter reached the second-highest level of methane emissions ever, or 21.1 million tons.

According to a study released by the Climate Observatory on Wednesday, three-fourths of Brazil's methane gas emissionswere linked to beef and dairy cattle production, which accounted for 14.5 million tons of total emissions in 2023, the equivalent to 406 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent.

This exceeded all the greenhouse gases emitted by Italy in the same year, the Climate Observatory said.

"Methane is a greenhouse gas that can warm the planet much more than carbon dioxide," Climate Observatory, a network of environmental organizations from Brazilian civil society, said in a statement. "Its molecules... have a global warming potential 28 times greater than that of CO2 over a one-hundred-year period."

Brazil, home to the world's second-biggest cattle herd, sells beef and byproducts to scores of countries. In November, the nation will host the COP 30 climate conference in Belem, the heart of the Amazon.

The country is the world's fifth-largest emitter of methane behind China, the U.S., India and Russia, the Climate Observatory's statement said.

Methane gas is mainly a byproduct of cattle belching resulting from the animals' digestive process. Other methane sources include animal waste and irrigated rice production.