New research has confirmed the carbon footprint of New Zealand beef and lamb is among the lowest in the world.
The comprehensive study by AgResearch has found that a kilo of New Zealand sheepmeat has a carbon footprint of just under 15kg of CO2 equivalent emissions per kilogram.
Meanwhile, the carbon footprint of New Zealand beef is just under 22kg, making the country's red meat among the most efficient in the world.
The researchers, who compared New Zealand's on-farm emissions to a range of countries' footprints across the globe, concluded that when Kiwi beef or sheepmeat is exported, the total carbon footprint is lower or very similar to domestically produced red meat in those nations.
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They concluded that this is because New Zealand is so efficient at the farm level, which represents about 90-95 per cent of the total carbon footprint.
New Zealand's on-farm footprint was about half the average of the other countries in the study.
The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study was commissioned by Beef + Lamb New Zealand and Meat Industry Association (MIA).
Based on the research, an analysis by Beef + Lamb and MIA shows eating red meat two to three times a week, over the course of an entire year, is just under the carbon footprint of a single passenger's return flight from Auckland to Christchurch.
As the world's second-biggest exporter of lamb and one of the largest beef exporters, sustainable farming is a critical part of the country's red-meat sector strategy.
The study was calculated using the standard GWP100 approach for converting methane to carbon dioxide equivalent to enable valid international comparisons.
AgResearch scientists also measured the carbon footprint of New Zealand beef and sheepmeat using an emerging approach known as GWP*, which determines a carbon footprint based on a product's actual contribution to the warming of the planet over a period of time, rather than the total emissions.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has found that the traditional GWP100 method overstates the impact of methane when this gas is not increasing, as is the case in New Zealand.
The calculation using GWP* for the period 1998 to 2018 showed that, when taking into account sequestration - trees and other vegetation on farms absorbing emissions, New Zealand's sheepmeat is arguably "climate neutral" and Kiwi beef is also well on the way towards that.
According to this calculation, over the past 20 years, New Zealand sheepmeat has not added any additional warming.
Absolute greenhouse emissions from New Zealand sheep and beef farming had decreased by 30 per cent since 1990, Beef + Lamb chief executive Sam McIvor said.
McIvor said the research "proved beyond doubt" that Kiwi beef and sheepmeat had one of the lightest carbon footprints for red meat in the world.
"There are a number of ways to calculate the climate impact of food products but, on any measure, New Zealand red meat is world-leading when compared to other major meat producers."
