Analysis of global emissions , carbon intensity and efficiency

greenhouse gas (gHg) emissions from agriculture, including crop and livestock production, forestry and associated land use changes, are responsible for a significant fraction of anthropogenic emissions. using data from a new gHg global database developed at FAO, we focus on global indicator trends in the agriculture sectors, in relation to the carbon intensity of key food commodities. in particular, we find that the carbon intensity of meat and milk production decreased significantly over the period from 1961 to 2010, largely due to increases in animal productivity. At the same time, agricultural emissions nonetheless increased by 1.6% annually, reaching 5.4-5.8 gt CO2 yr-1 in 2010