Comparing the Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Dairy and Pork Systems Across Countries Using Land-Use Carbon Opportunity Costs

This research paper compares the lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of dairy production in 13 countries and pork production in 10 countries, utilizing carbon opportunity costs to account for land-use emissions.

• The use of carbon opportunity costs to measure land-use GHG costs increases the overall emissions attributed to dairy and pork production while decreasing the variability of these emissions across different countries compared to other life cycle assessment (LCA) methods.
• Variations in emissions between countries are primarily driven by country temperatures (affecting manure emissions), manure management methods, and feeding conversion efficiency. In dairy production, a higher reliance on grazing generally increases GHG costs, though New Zealand is an exception due to its highly intensive grazing practices.
• Denmark is categorized among the lowest emitting countries, with results similar to several other nations. Because emissions are similar across developed agricultural countries, further reductions will likely require new innovations rather than the adoption of existing methods from other countries.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Comparing the Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Dairy and Pork Systems Across Countries Using Land-Use Carbon Opportunity Costs. https://www.wri.org/research/comparing-life-cycle-greenhouse-gas-emissions-dairy-and-pork-systems-across-countries

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Comparing the Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Dairy and Pork Systems Across Countries Using Land-Use Carbon Opportunity Costs. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/comparing-life-cycle-greenhouse-gas-emissions-dairy-and-pork-systems-across-countries.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Comparing the Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Dairy and Pork Systems Across Countries Using Land-Use Carbon Opportunity Costs |url=https://www.wri.org/research/comparing-life-cycle-greenhouse-gas-emissions-dairy-and-pork-systems-across-countries |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendcomparing, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Comparing the Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Dairy and Pork Systems Across Countries Using Land-Use Carbon Opportunity Costs}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/comparing-life-cycle-greenhouse-gas-emissions-dairy-and-pork-systems-across-countries}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }