Patricia Fisher, “The ‘Dark Horse’ of Climate Change: Agricultural Methane Governance in the United States and Canada” (2022) North American Climate Policy.
With a focus on both Canada and the United States, Patricia (Trish) Fisher researches each country’s policies surrounding agricultural methane emissions reduction policies, which is a byproduct of livestock/animal agriculture. Key findings include:
1. The US and Canada are falling behind peer countries (including some European countries and New Zealand) in terms of agricultural methane mitigation policy;
2. Neither country is considering mandatory agricultural emissions reductions, cuts in livestock production, or inclusion of agriculture in any form of greenhouse gas pricing scheme;
3. Supply-side, technically-oriented policy solutions to livestock methane emissions will, in the near term, be unable to achieve any significant emissions reduction;
4. Neither the US nor Canada is considering policy approaches that even approximate the types of comprehensive changes to the food system that will be necessary to avert catastrophic climate scenarios.