Faced with the positive results in terms of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe – the relevant Commission report shows a drop of 3.2% in 2023 compared to the previous year – it deserves to clarify the types of emissions and who is responsible for them.

In fact, it should be remembered that carbon dioxide and methane are not the same thing. Net of their respective molecular composition, the variable that distinguishes them is the duration in the atmosphere. While CO2 remains there for centuries, if not millennia, methane is disposed of between 9 and 12 years. Hence the conceptual distinction between stock gas and flow gas.

On the other hand, methane is also a climate altering gas. That’s why, since 2020, the European Union has intensified the regulation of its emissions. The goal of the “Global Methane Pledge” – to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030 – represents a concrete and targeted commitment to address methane emissions in Europe and globally. In this regard, the commitment spent by the supply chain to intensify its best practices in terms of the circular economy would deserve greater enhancement. Also to counterbalance the debate that sees the sector often and unfairly victim of ideological attacks.

However, precisely for the distinction between stock and flow gasses, the need to introduce new metrics emerges, thus exceeding the standard of conversion of all gasses to CO2 equivalent.

Here, however, a second element takes over. Methane emissions can be natural, and therefore inevitable. For example, those generated by biomass fermentation processes in swamps. Or trace them back to human activities, from which a further distinction starts.

On the one hand, we have fugitive emissions of methane from fossil sources. These include unintentional losses during the extraction, transport and distribution of fuels such as natural gas and oil, but also those arising from coal mines, especially abandoned ones. Fugitive emissions represent a totally unproductive loss, do not enter a natural cycle and do not contribute to the circular economy.

On the other hand, we have biogenic methane, which is part of a short-term and renewable carbon cycle, in which carbon is absorbed by plants, consumed by animals and re-emitted as methane. The cycle closes when this methane, after a period of about 12 years, oxidizes and turns into CO2, which in turn is reabsorbed by plants. This cyclicity is a distinctive element of the circularity of the supply chain of farms.

However, on the subject of methane emissions, livestock farms are wrongly indicated as responsible for a share of global methane emissions. But the comparison between methane from the fugitive emissions of fossil fuels and biogenic methane is completely incongruous.

In fact, farms transform biomass that is not digestible by humans into protein-rich foods such as meat and milk. This process not only contributes to global food security, but also optimizes resources that would not otherwise be valued. The ability of ruminants to convert cellulose (which humans cannot digest) into useful proteins represents a form of natural recycling, minimizing the environmental impact of the resources used that would otherwise have to be disposed of with consequent economic and environmental impacts.

In addition, the livestock sector has already implemented several strategies to reduce its emissions: among these we find improvements in the management of the animal diet, with supplements that reduce the production of methane and the use of good breeding practices aimed at reducing the environmental footprint of the sector.

The improvement of livestock waste management practices also contributes to the reduction of methane emissions, placing livestock in a framework of greater sustainability. In fact, through the use of biogas and biomethane plants, in addition to reducing stable effluent emissions, the consumption of fossil fuels is also reduced, thus leading to a double environmental advantage.

The comparison between farms and energy industries is as wrong as putting on the same level the smoke generated by a cigarette, harmful in every aspect, and that originating from cooking, an inevitable consequence of a necessary activity. Instead, it is crucial to understand that methane emissions from the enteric fermentation of ruminants (a process that occurs in the stomachs of animals during digestion) are part of a natural cycle, while fossil methane resulting from fugitive emissions, trapped underground for millions of years, represents a net release of carbon into the atmosphere.