Agriculture gets its day at COP28, but experts see big barriers to cutting emissions

abcnews.go.com:

This year’s global climate summit in Dubai set aside Sunday to spotlight food and agriculture, a sector that accounts for about a third of the world’s emission

More than 100 world leaders at this year's United Nations climate summit agreed to make their farm and food systems a key part of their plans to fight climate change, seeking improvements in a sector that accounts for about a third of planet-warming emissions.

With livestock accounting for over half of those emissions, meat and dairy are at the forefront of many agriculture conversations at COP28 in Dubai. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization added to those conversations with an updated report that included ways to cut those livestock emissions.

“You don’t meet the climate goals without doing something in the system, and in this case on livestock,” said Francesco Tubiello, a senior statistician with the FAO who worked on the report. It briefly mentions eating less meat, but mostly highlights ways the meat industry can improve productivity and efficiency.

Change won't be easy. Like fossil fuel producers, the meat industry turned out in force to protect its interests at the talks, including casting their practices as “sustainable nutrition,” according to one report. A potential competitor, alternative meat, has hit a rough patch after initial enthusiasm and investment.

And then there are consumers themselves, who have shown little interest in changing their eating habits, even as meat's contribution to emissions has gotten more attention.

“The reality is Americans eat just as much meat now as they did 50 years ago,” said Maureen Ogle, a historian and author of In Meat We Trust, a history of the meat industry in America.

Ogle said American producers have