Greenhouse gas emissions of meat products in China: A provincial-level quantification.

• Quantify the province-level GHG emissions of meat products in China. • Employ process-based life-cycle inventory approach for bottom-up modeling. • The GHG emissions of Chinese livestock sector were 429 million tons CO 2 e in 2018. • Beef has the highest GHG intensity, followed by mutton, chicken, and pork. • Shandong, Henan, and Sichuan are the top GHG emitters, about 100 million tons CO 2 e in 2018. Driven by a continuous rise in household living standards, China's meat consumption keeps growing, increasing the need for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions mitigation. This study employed a process-based life-cycle inventory model to quantify the province-level GHG emissions of meat products in China. Four major livestock products (beef, mutton, chicken, and pork) at four farming scales (cage-free, small, medium, and large-scale farming) were considered. The GHG emissions of the Chinese livestock sector were 429 million tons (MT) CO 2e in 2018. Beef had the highest GHG intensity (19.6 kg CO 2 e /kg), followed by mutton (10.0 kg CO 2 e /kg), chicken (4.4 kg CO 2 e /kg), and pork (3.8 kg CO 2 e /kg). Spatially, northwestern China had a high GHG intensity 5.58 g CO 2 e /kcal), while the eastern and central regions presented low-intensity values (1.89 and 1.71 g CO 2 e /kcal, respectively). At the province level, Shandong (38.2 MT CO 2 e) was the top emitter, while Shanghai (0.5 MT CO 2 e) had the lowest emissions. This study identified the GHG emission hotspots along the meat product production chain and revealed the spatial pattern of meat-related GHG emissions in China, advancing the low-carbon transition of China's livestock sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]