Argentina - Develop a roadmap to reduce methane emissions intensity from beef cattle sector

Rationale 

Beef exporting countries face a challenge in reducing their livestock-generated greenhouse gas emissions, while sustaining the livelihoods dependent on the agricultural economy. Increasing the emissions efficiency of ruminant animals is one way countries can balance their emissions reductions and economic goals. 

The Government of Argentina is committed to reducing methane emissions intensity from the livestock sector, derived from enteric fermentation and manure management of beef cattle. Argentina has established a 2030 goal to reduce emissions from agriculture and developed a series of Plans in collaboration with stakeholders (e.g., Plan Estratégico Forestal y Foresto Industrial Argentina 2030, Plan Nacional para el Manejo de Bosques con Ganadería Integrada, Plan Nacional de Adaptación y Mitigación al Cambio Climático). 

It has recognised that the productive sector is at a high risk from climate change from desertification, floods, and other threats which can lead to rural poverty and food insecurity. This project will fulfill the need of the Argentinian government to align the actions established in its National Plan with the opportunities and needs of the beef sector, resulting in decreased emissions intensity.

To do so, Argentina must develop evidence-based policies and measures that address short-lived climate pollutants in the livestock sub-sector; and scale up methane mitigation measures through training of beef cattle producers at farm level.

This project will also improve Argentina’s monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) system for the livestock sub-sector, incorporating Short-Lived Climate Pollutants monitoring and will support the transition to the requirements of the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF).

Objectives

This project aims to provide the national and subnational governments and the agriculture sector the necessary tools to achieve its emissions efficiency goals. 

Specifically the project aims to:

• Enable the Government of Argentina to endorse a roadmap for reducing methane emissions intensity from livestock production.
• Provide the Government of Argentina with a project pipeline for methane intensity mitigation in the beef cattle livestock sector.
• Strengthen livestock producers' knowledge to mitigate intensity methane emissions through practical approaches.
• Provide the Government of Argentina with an improved MRV framework for the beef cattle livestock sub-sector.

Activities

To achieve these aims, the project will:

• Develop a comprehensive roadmap that details practices and technologies for the beef sector, per production region, and a policy roadmap, which when implemented will result in reduced methane emissions intensity and improved farmers’ income and rural development. 
• Develop a comprehensive benchmarking analysis, the project team will develop a project pipeline to inform the Argentinian government about important gaps to achieve emissions intensity reduction in the beef sector. 
• Identify gaps in beef farmers’ knowledge about practices and technologies available to improve production and productivity as an important barrier for the adoption of these technologies in Argentina. 
• Develop a monitoring, reporting, and verification framework to support the Argentinian government in monitoring progress in reducing methane emissions intensity from the beef sector that will account for productivity improvement. The process, material and inputs from private sector, through subnational and national government will be fit in the MRV, detecting future improvements and gaps according to process or infrastructure type. 

Project Reference: [AR-24-005] Argentina - Develop a roadmap to reduce methane emissions intensity from beef cattle sector