Promoting methane mitigation from manure management in China

Year

2020

Funding

CCAC Funded

Animal manure in China is a major source of methane emissions. In 2014, methane emissions from manure in China were 3.155 megatonnes per year.

China is committed, through its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), to develop low-carbon agriculture and reduce greenhouse gas emissions through manure management. Its “Regulations on the prevention and pollution control for intensive livestock operations” went into force in 2014, and “Opinions of the general office of the state council on accelerating the utilization of waste resources from livestock” was issued in 2016, resulting in several actions implemented on manure utilization.

These manure policies focus on preventing local environmental pollution. There is no quantitative analysis on the potential that these policies have on methane mitigation.

The Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) is working with the Institute of Environmental and Sustainable Development in Agriculture (IEDA) and Chinese Academy of Agriculture Sciences (CAAS) to develop a strategy for incorporating methane mitigation from manure management into China’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) and updating and implementing China's Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

Why we're doing this work

China has the world's largest domesticated animal population. The pig, poultry, goat, sheep, buffalo and cattle population accounts for 47.6%, 24.6%, 14.3%, 13.3 %, 11.9% and 5.6% of the total world population, respectively. China produces an estimated 3.8 billion tons of manure annually, which results in serious environmental pollution. Around 42% of the national total chemical oxygen demand (COD) and 22% of the total nitrogen (TN) discharged to the environment are from livestock production.

Actions to reduce manure methane emissions in China will contribute to protecting the global climate and ecosystems, deliver local air quality and health benefits for people and animals, and reduce emissions of other pollutants such as nitrous oxide and ammonia.

What we're doing

Activities under this project include:

Identifying suitable applied practices for reducing methane emissions
Quantifying mitigation potential
Providing policy recommendations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the “14th Five-Year (2021-2025)” Plan and China’s updated NDC