ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Impacts of Cattle and Sheep Husbandry on Global
Greenhouse Gas Emissions: A Time Series Analysis
for Central European Countries
Serkan Gürlük, Gökhan Uzel, Özlem Turan
More details
Hide details
Department of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Faculty, Uludag University,
16059 Bursa, Turkey
Submission date: 2014-01-21
Final revision date: 2014-08-18
Acceptance date: 2014-09-03
Publication date: 2015-02-06
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2015;24(1):93-98
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Global warming and climate change have become issues that recently have caused much concern in the
world. Countries that perform their economic activities without thinking about future generations have had to
focus on “sustainability” issues since local and global environmental issues have been experienced. In this
context, global warming problems have become one of the most important environmental topics occupying
the world agenda and are causing intensive scientific and political discussions. One of the causes of global
warming is increasing greenhouse gases, CO2, CH4, N2O, CFC, etc., in the atmosphere. Especially in developing
countries, growing populations, industrial development, and increasing demand for energy have triggered
greenhouse gas emissions. Yet we cannot ignore the contributions of developed countries to greenhouse
gas emissions. In fact, developed countries have brought the world’s attention to sustainability and environmental
management systems after contributing negatively to world pollution. While all these discussions are
going on, a new issue is the negative effect of greenhouse gas emissions caused by animal husbandry. In order
to meet the global meat demand, intensive industrial and traditional husbandry is preferred worldwide. This
situation causes increased greenhouse gas emissions and may cause significant problems to the environment
and to sustainable agriculture. By considering the negative contribution of animal husbandry to global warming
issues, countries may have to enact reforms in animal husbandry policies or pay the price for their contribution
to greenhouse gas emissions in the future. The purpose of this study is to present policy options for
Turkey, EU-12 countries, and Central European countries in regards to this topic. These analyses will shed
light on animal husbandry practices and contribute to the knowledge level of political decision makers and the
public.