In France, while Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne presented her plan on Monday, May 22 to accelerate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for climate change, the Court of Auditors is proposing an effective lever to the government: reducing the herd of cattle.
According to the Court of Auditors – which is an independent administration – the breeding of cows is indeed responsible for 11.8% of CO2 equivalent emissions in France. That’s as much as the country’s residential buildings.
For the climate, the main problem of breeding is methane emissions from cattle. That is to say the belches of the cows and their droppings, because Methane is an even warmer greenhouse gas than CO2. In France, methane emissions represent 45% of agricultural emissions, far too much if France wants to meet its climate commitments.
For the Court of Auditors, which publishes a report on public subsidies for cattle breeding, the government must therefore ” define a herd reduction strategy “. The leading beef producing country in Europe, France has 17 million cows, but its herd is already declining due to the retirement of breeders.
Review aid to the sector or support for retraining
For the wise, we must go further, pilot this reduction and review aid to the sector, subsidize farms that combine economic objectives and ecological objectives, or even support conversion. The production of energy such as biogas by anaerobic digestion or the adoption of systems combining the production of photovoltaic electricity and agricultural production are the avenues mentioned.
And the food sovereignty of the country would not be endangered for all that, underlines the Court of Auditors, as long as all the French follow the health recommendations and do not eat more than 500 grams of red meat per week.
>> To read also: Livestock: how to reduce enteric methane from cows