Methane is a short-lived greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. Greenhouse gas emissions are typically assessed using the method that evaluates emissions based on the global warming potential of individual greenhouse gases over a hundred-year period (GWP100), but this approach is oversimplified. A newer method, which provides a more accurate estimate of the impact of greenhouse gases on the climate, assesses emissions based on the global warming potential of individual greenhouse gases over a hundred-year period, while also considering the lifespan of these gases in the atmosphere (GWP*) is used to estimate the impact of greenhouse gases on the climate more accurately. The GWP100 method only shows the actual emissions of methane and other greenhouse gases, whereas the GWP* method also takes into account their atmospheric lifetime. The impact of methane according to the GWP* method is significantly lower than with the GWP100 method. We compared the two methods mentioned above and, based on the data obtained for Slovenia, the European Union (EU-27) and the world, we concluded that the impact of cattle farming on global warming for the period 2018-2022 using the GWP100 method was overestimated by 2.6 times in Slovenia and by 65 % in the world. The largest discrepancies were found for the European Union, where the GWP100 method shows that cattle farming warms the climate, while the GWP* method shows that it cools it.
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