Climate goals in ruminant agriculture: the complicated science of goal setting

In recent years, growing concern over the climate impact of ruminant livestock production has caused a drastic shift in corporate actions. Companies that are involved in the production of beef now commonly have company climate goals aimed at some level of greenhouse gas emission reduction or outright “net-zero” or “climate neutrality” targets. Setting these targets have also caused considerable concern with some stakeholders, with claims of greenwashing and lawsuits arising. Additionally, the individuals who will ultimately be responsible for these companies achieving their targets, the producer, has little idea they are being set let alone the practice suite needed to achieve them. This has created an environment that leads to confusion for stakeholders and ever-evolving benchmarks for what is acceptable. We discuss this complicated science of ruminant livestock climate goal setting, within the larger framework of achieving the goals set by the Paris Climate Accord and companies’ desires to improve their social license to operate. Viewing this process as an extension of the industries desire to extend and/or improve their social license to operate, the desire for companies to set goals is rational and, conversely, the push back is fair and a part of the evolving value set of society. However, all parties would benefit by improving on key aspects of the social license, such as improving transparency, engaging with those stakeholders with differing views, and maintaining a science-based approach.