By Jeff Osowski
For most of the last few decades, climate mitigation has been framed largely as a carbon dioxide problem. That framing is still correct, CO₂ is a significant driver of warming and the long-term constraint. But in the last several years, attention has broadened to include methane, because it changes what’s possible in the near term.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that approximately 30% of anthropogenic warming has been driven by methane. Methane is often communicated using a 100-year global warming potential (GWP100), where 1 ton of methane has an equivalent warming impact to ~28 tons of CO₂e. But the time horizon that matters for near-term climate risk is shorter. We are in a race to 2050 to reduce warming in order to avoid destabilizing tipping points. Over a 20-year horizon 1 ton of methane is >80 tons of CO₂e. Methane doesn’t just matter, it’s a Super Pollutant.
Methane is also short-lived relative to CO₂. Cutting methane doesn’t just slow the rate of warming; it can reduce atmospheric methane concentrations; consequently producing a near-term cooling effect. In other words, methane is one of the few places climate action can ‘pull a lever’ to play offense on climate change.
Enteric methane (methane produced as part of ruminants’ digestion) is one of the largest anthropogenic methane sources, and one of the most challenging to abate without impacting productivity. Multiple analyses estimate that enteric methane from ruminant livestock can account for up to ~30% of global anthropogenic methane emissions. Beef and dairy deliver high value proteins and form core parts of diets in both rich and poorer countries. Wishing aways cows is not a viable solution.
This is the context for Rumin8’s focus: reducing methane at its source, inside the rumen, through a feed additive approach designed to suppress methane formation while supporting animal performance.
We are seeing strong results. In our most recent published trial at the University of New England (NSW, Australia), methane reductions of 93% were recorded. These findings are consistent with a recent UC Davis study in which total methane emissions in cattle were reduced by 95% when animals were fed a total mixed ration (TMR) that included Rumin8 product.
The pathways are forming to translate emissions reductions on-farm into sustainable revenue. Producers and supply-chain participants can monetize verified abatement through several pathways: generating carbon credits, applying reductions as insets within corporate decarbonization programs, or enabling differentiated low-carbon beef offerings. Advances are continuing in protocols, measurement, modelling, and incentives that will stimulate the market.
On the carbon market pathway, we look forward to releasing results in the coming weeks from the pilot conducted in Brazil with Minerva and Athian. The pilot will be the first instance in which carbon credits are generated from cattle fed with Rumin8’s feed additives.
In the meantime, we are focused on product development and commercialisation so participants along the beef and dairy supply chains can play their part to reduce this climate super pollutant.