Livestock farming accounts for around 14.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. The connection between climate action and animal welfare is important for advocates to understand.
The connection between livestock farming, climate change, and animal welfare runs in multiple directions. High-emitting intensive farming systems often involve poor welfare conditions. Climate change itself worsens welfare for farm animals through heat stress and disease expansion, and for wild animals through habitat loss and extreme weather. Dietary shifts that reduce livestock product consumption simultaneously reduce emissions, reduce animal numbers in poor welfare conditions, and reduce climate pressure on wild animals.