Dairy contribute 4% of GHG.

Using 2007 data, the FAO found that this figure was 1 969m tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent, a standard measure for comparing emissions of different GHGs.

In fact, carbon dioxide is only responsible for a small proportion of the total, especially in developed nations, with methane accounting for 52 percent of the GHG emissions.

The headline 1 969m CO2 equivalent figure translates to 4 per cent of global emissions but when taking meat production from the equation and focusing just on emissions related directly to milk products, the figure was 1 328m tonnes or 2.7 per cent of global emissions.



Assessing the contribution of different stages in the supply chain, the FAO report said cradle-to-farm gate emissions contribute to, on average, 93 percent of total dairy GHG emissions.
This figure is lower in industrialized countries, where the contribution of on-farm activities is between 78 and 83 per cent of total life cycle emissions.