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Data

Methane from livestock, world

Methane released each year since 1961 by the world's farm animals, from digestion (enteric fermentation) and from manure management, as estimated by FAO.

Latest value

115.2Mt CH₄

World, 2023. Version 2025-10-28.

Methane from livestock, world (million tonnes of methane)

63 values from 1961 to 2023.
Show as a table
Methane from livestock, world, every value
PeriodValue (Mt CH₄)Status
196172.5final
196273.6final
196374.4final
196475.3final
196576.6final
196678.2final
196779.8final
196881.0final
196981.3final
197081.7final
197183.1final
197284.5final
197385.5final
197487.4final
197588.7final
197689.4final
197789.7final
197890.0final
197990.7final
198091.9final
198192.6final
198293.6final
198394.1final
198494.8final
198595.2final
198696.1final
198796.1final
198896.6final
198997.9final
199098.5final
199198.4final
199297.6final
199397.2final
199498.0final
199598.2final
199698.2final
199796.5final
199896.7final
199996.9final
200097.3final
200197.3final
200298.2final
200399.3final
2004100.5final
2005101.5final
2006102.4final
2007103.3final
2008104.0final
2009104.3final
2010104.2final
2011104.6final
2012105.4final
2013105.9final
2014106.6final
2015107.5final
2016108.6final
2017109.2final
2018109.3final
2019110.0final
2020111.7final
2021113.0final
2022114.2final
2023115.2final
Calculated by Environment Dashboard from FAO. 2025. FAOSTAT. Accessed on 5 October 2026. https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data Licence: CC-BY-4.0. Changes: converted from kilotonnes to million tonnes of methane. CC BY 4.0 (FAO Statistical Database Terms of Use).

Where it comes from

Producer
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Statistics Division · FAOSTAT agrifood emissions, livestock emissions, emissions intensities, land use and food loss
Version
2025-10-28
File
https://bulks-faostat.fao.org/production/Emissions_Totals_E_All_Data_(Normalized).zip
Fetched
2026-10-04 (automatically), 20,501,708 bytes
Fingerprint
sha256 d2c47e116553711f7c2fd6b62437db511038fd9bd9ec77815fa69ff7a18a89a9ETag "99a1f7889c9873df9bdb619a99572a1f-3" · Last-Modified Sat, 06 Dec 2025 15:13:44 GMT
Copies
No Wayback copy recorded yet.Our copy of the exact file
Cite the producer
FAO. 2025. FAOSTAT. Accessed on 5 October 2026. https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data Licence: CC-BY-4.0.
Producer
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Statistics Division · FAOSTAT agrifood emissions, livestock emissions, emissions intensities, land use and food loss
Version
2025-10-28
File
https://bulks-faostat.fao.org/production/datasets_E.json
Fetched
2026-10-05 (automatically), 109,120 bytes
Fingerprint
sha256 008f475c971a7770c69b1bc48f1c3a5fa8bf3873e762d6e1e9516bb0a700ebdaETag W/"157c9ec8e5eea09a02497cc10f67bcdb" · Last-Modified Mon, 05 Oct 2026 12:49:35 GMT
Copies
No Wayback copy recorded yet.Our copy of the exact file
Cite the producer
FAO. 2025. FAOSTAT. Accessed on 5 October 2026. https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data Licence: CC-BY-4.0.

What was done to it

  1. Read Emissions_Totals_E_All_Data_(Normalized).csv from FAOSTAT's Emissions totals (GT) bulk zip. The vintage is the domain's DateUpdate, 28 October 2025, from FAOSTAT's bulk-download catalogue (datasets_E.json), whose entry names this zip and gives FileRows 2,500,090, the number of data rows in this file. The zip was last modified on the server on Sat, 06 Dec 2025 15:13:44 GMT.

    Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/food/faostat_emissions.py · code sha256 ba01ed68c7b4c466… · inputs d2c47e116553… 008f475c971a…

  2. Kept the World (area code 5000), "FAO TIER 1" rows of item "Emissions from livestock" (code 5085), element "Emissions (CH4)" (code 7225): methane from enteric fermentation and manure management, one value per year, 1961–2023, in kilotonnes of methane.

    Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/food/faostat_emissions.py · code sha256 ba01ed68c7b4c466… · inputs d2c47e116553… 008f475c971a…

  3. Converted kilotonnes to million tonnes by dividing by 1,000 (exact decimal arithmetic on the printed values).

    Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/food/faostat_emissions.py · code sha256 ba01ed68c7b4c466… · inputs d2c47e116553… 008f475c971a…

  4. Every value used carries FAO's flag E, which the file's codebook defines as "Estimated value".

    Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/food/faostat_emissions.py · code sha256 ba01ed68c7b4c466… · inputs d2c47e116553… 008f475c971a…

  5. Left out FAO's projections for 2030 and 2050, which the file flags F ("Forecast value").

    Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/food/faostat_emissions.py · code sha256 ba01ed68c7b4c466… · inputs d2c47e116553… 008f475c971a…

What it covers

Geography
World
Basis
FAOSTAT item "Emissions from livestock", element "Emissions (CH4)": methane from enteric fermentation and manure management, mass of methane (not CO₂-equivalent). FAO Tier 1 estimates (IPCC 2006 Guidelines), not country inventory submissions.
Unit
million tonnes of methane (Mt CH₄)