Abstract

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is acting to reduce its carbon footprint and promote sustainable development. In a bid to quantify and mitigate the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG), the government has recently compiled an inventory for GHG emissions from key sectors in Abu Dhabi Emirate. However, the inventory lacks data for several subsectors and for other emirates in the UAE. In this study, the trend of emissions in the UAE was analyzed, and carbon emission from livestock manure (sheep, goat, cattle and camel) was determined experimentally; and combined with a detailed livestock mapping to evaluate the total carbon emission from manure in the UAE. Results showed that total emission from sheep, goat, cattle and camel manure in the UAE are 22, 246, 56 and 11 kt CO₂ eq. respectively; with Abu Dhabi Emirate contributing 84%, 63%, 52% and 91% for each livestock respectively. In total, Abu Dhabi Emirate contributes 212 kt CO₂ eq. (64%) to livestock emission in the UAE. These results can be further analyzed to model and predict the increase in emissions from this subsector and design strategies to combat these emissions.

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