Publications
National temperature neutrality, agricultural methane and climate policy: reinforcing inequality in the global food system
This study critically examines the use of ‘no additional warming’ approaches, such as temperature neutrality (TN), to determine national climate policy on agricultural methane (CH4). The reduced-complexity climate model MAGICC was used to quantify future national warming contributions for Ireland (a country with high per-capita CH4 emissions driven by large-scale dairy and beef production) under a business-as-usual pathway and three alternative scenarios: (1) TN, (2) a split-gas emission target, or (3) net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
- Authors
Colm Duffy, Carl Doedens, Dr Róisín Moriarty, Prof Hannah Daly, David Styles and Malte Meinshausen.
- Year
- 2025
- Journal Name
- Environmental Research Letters
- Category
- Journal Article
- Keywords
- Climate Neutrality, Climate Action, Methane, Emissions
- Project
- Link to Publication
- https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/adf12d/pdf
Abstract
The study concludes that the TN approach is not arobust basis for fair and effective national climate policy, and risks a potentially costly underestimation of both long-term CH4 mitigation and carbon dioxide removal in the context of national planning for an equitable, sustainable, food secure future.