Methane Emission Assessment from Indian Livestock and Its Role in Climate Change Using Climate Metrics

Abstract

Indian livestock farming is one of the significant anthropogenic sources of methane (CH 4 ) in the world. Here, CH 4 emission from Indian livestock and climate change impact in terms of two climate metrics, global surface temperature change potential (GTP) and absolute GTP (AGTP), to assess the surface temperature changes for 20 and 100 year time frame have been studied. CH 4 emission from Indian livestock was 15.3 Tg in 2012. GTP 20 and GTP 100 for livestock-related CH 4 emission in India in 2012 were 1030 and 62 Tg CO 2 e, respectively. The study also illustrates that CH 4 emissions can cause a surface temperature increase of up to 0.7 – 0.036 mK over the 20 and 100 year time periods, respectively. Thus, the negative climate change impact is global in nature, not only restricted to India. GTP and AGTP can be used in climate change impact study and as a more policy relevant tool.