Products

Product CO2e / kg Studies

Pork

6.622
CO2e / kg
= 100 g of Pork
You can consume
0.41
kg of Pork to exhaust your daily CO2e food budget

Categories: Meat | Food

Pork production accounts for ~10% of global livestock emissions1, which is ~1.5% of total global emissions2.

The vast majority of emissions in pork production come from feed (~50%) and manure (~40%)3. Methane emissions from the animal's stomach only contributes ~5%. This is in stark contrast with beef production, where these methane emissions make up 40-50% of the total emissions3 4.

  1. 0.7 Gt for pork production, compared to 7.1 Gt for all livestock emissions. Gerber, P. J., Hristov, A. N., Henderson, B., Makkar, H., Oh, J., Lee, C., ... & Oosting, S. (2013). Technical options for the mitigation of direct methane and nitrous oxide emissions from livestock: a review. animal, 7(s2), 220-234. ↩

  2. Total global emissions in 2016 = 49 billion t CO2e. https://ourworldindata.org/greenhouse-gas-emissions ↩

  3. Cederberg, C. (2009). Greenhouse gas emissions from Swedish production of meat, milk and eggs 1990 and 2005. SIK Institutet för livsmedel och bioteknik. ↩

  4. Opio, C., Gerber, P., Mottet, A., Falcucci, A., Tempio, G., MacLeod, M., ... & Steinfeld, H. (2013). Greenhouse gas emissions from ruminant supply chains–A global life cycle assessment. Food and agriculture organization of the United Nations. https://www.fao.org/3/i3461e/i3461e.pdf (Figure 5); Beef production emissions = 2.5 billion t CO2e; Breakdown of emissions: Figure 5; Regional emissions: Figure 11b. ↩

Subcategories: Pork (cold cut) | Pork (shoulder) | Pork (frozen) | Pork (eco) | Pork (belly) | Pork (loin) | Pork (tenderloin) | Pork (collar) | Minced meat (pork, 15-20% fat) | Minced meat (pork, 5-10% fat) | Pork (saddle, cooked) | Pork (flank) | Liver Pâté (Pork) | Bacon | Ham

Studies

Source Notes CO2e Country origin Country consumption Weight
How low can we go? An assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from the UK food system and the scope reduction by 2050 Pig meat
4.56
 Europe United Kingdom 4
How low can we go? An assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from the UK food system and the scope reduction by 2050 Pig meat
4.45
 United Kingdom United Kingdom 0
Umweltwirkungen der Ernährung-Ökobilanzierung des Nahrungsmittelverbrauchs tierischer Produkte nach Gesellschaftsgruppen in Deutschland Table 1
8.85
 Germany Germany 8
Review on greenhouse gas emissions from pig houses: Production of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide by animals and manure. per kg carcass.
4.87
 Unknown Unknown 10
RISE Open access list 1.7 Per kg boneless meat, not cooked
4.2
 Sweden Sweden 5
RIVM Database Milieubelasting Voedingsmiddelen Varkensvlees, mager/vet
12.419
 Unknown Netherlands 5
Ökologische Fußabdrücke von Lebensmitteln und Gerichten in Deutschland (IFEU) Schweinefleisch, Durchschnitt
4.6
 Unknown Germany 6
Life Cycle Impacts of Proteinrich Foods for Superwijzer conventional
9.01
 Netherlands Unknown 4
Greenhouse gas emissions from Swedish production of meat, milk and eggs 1990 and 2005 Supplement 9, Table 1a: pork meat production 2005; at farm gate
3.39
 Sweden Sweden 8
Mat-klimat-listan variation 4-8 kgCO2/kg
6.0
 Unknown Sweden 6
Klimatarier CO2 Rechner Schweinefleisch
4.15
 Unknown Unknown 5
Pendos CO2-Zähler Schweinefleisch
3.25
 Unknown Unknown 5
Meat eater's guide to climate change + health Pork Production System kg of CO2e per pound of edible pork
Michigan (average productivity) 4.17
Iowa (confined) 4.52
Iowa (some pasture) 5.17
Average 4.62
Table 9. Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Pork Consumption (post-farmgate)
Emission Source kg of CO2e per pound of consumed pork
Processing 1.52
Domestic Transport 0.38
Refrigeration (retail) 0.11
Home Cooking 1.64
Waste Disposal 0.16
Total 3.81
Per kg of consumed meat (includes moisture loss, waste loss and post-farmgate): 12.12 kg CO2e
12.12
 USA USA 6
Potential contributions of food consumption patterns to climate change domestic, fresh, cooked; CO2: 3.9, NO2: 1.6, NH4: 3.8
9.3
 Sweden Sweden 8
Greenhouse gas emissions of realistic dietary choices in Denmark: the carbon footprint and nutritional value of dairy products Table 1; including waste; excluding waste: 5.57
6.25
 Unknown Unknown 8
Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers Figure 1
7.6
 Unknown Unknown 8
Systematic review of greenhouse gas emissions for different fresh food categories Table 4 Median; #LCA studies: 38; #GWP values: 130; Mean: 5.85; Stdev: 1.63; Min: 3.2; Max: 11.86
5.77
 Unknown Unknown 8

Recipes

*only recipes with more than 50 grams of Pork are shown.
Recipes