The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has made public an interactive tool based on its Global Livestock Environmental Assessment Model (GLEAM-i) to help countries measure greenhouse gas emissions from farming.

“It proposes default input parameters of various sources that need to be reviewed and corrected by the user before considering results,” FAO scientists told the Irish Farmers Journal.

Experts can replace this baseline data with details from their country, such as the type of feed and fertiliser they use or plan to use, and simulate climate impact.

Environment organisation An Taisce claimed the model is a “bombshell”, ranking Irish beef as Europe’s most carbon-intensive, and Irish milk third highest.

A spokesperson said An Taisce had obtained the rankings by running the model with baseline data for Ireland and other countries.

The FAO said this was an incorrect use of the tool. “GLEAM-i is not designed to compare results from various countries based on default input parameters,” a spokesperson said.

Deflating the beef carbon bubble

FAO model a blank canvas rather than a 'bombshell'

The UN's agriculture body has designed a computer tool to help countries simulate their greenhouse gas emissions by inputting their national farming data.