Spanish pig industry is leading in the fight against climate change
The current pig sector is made up of modern livestock and a technologically advanced industry. “This has allowed us to achieve significant progress in recent years in reducing emissions and sustainable production, such as reducing our carbon footprint by almost 40% per kilo of meat produced; slurry by 50%; and the water footprint is 30% per kilo of meat produced”, Herranz pointed out.
Alberto Herranz has also focused on the fact that "the pig sector only generates 2.64% of GHG emissions in Spain. That is the real data that appears in the GHG Emissions Inventory of MITECO (Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge), much lower than that of other sectors such as Transport (27%), Industry (19%) or Electricity (17%).
The director of INTERPORC has highlighted that all pig professionals are involved in the fight against climate change and this is demonstrated by the fact that these figures are reduced year after year: “only in the last year they have been reduced by 4.11% GHG emissions for each kilo of meat produced, all of which figures are gradually being reduced within the framework of the goal set by the pig sector to achieve a neutral climate impact by 2050 in line with the provisions of the European Green Deal” .
Herranz has highlighted that "we are the first interested in good management and in the care of nature because a good part of our activity takes place in open and natural environments".
This location is leading many pig companies to make significant investments that are turning this sector into an example of a circular economy. Thus, there are more and more farms that use renewable energies such as solar thermal or photovoltaic.
Others are self-sufficient through biodigestion of manure by cogeneration. In this way, they reduce their environmental impact by generating less methane and CO 2 , in addition to distributing, in some cases, the surplus electricity they generate. And we must not forget that the most important use of manure is its conversion into organic fertilizer, more efficient and natural than chemical fertilizers.
The pig sector is very aware of the fight against climate change and has made significant progress. “We are very aware of the climate emergency we are experiencing, and that is why all investments to modernize different links in the chain are aimed at continuing to improve sustainability. But we are not satisfied, we also interact with international organizations to contribute to global sustainability”.
In this sense, INTERPORC, on behalf of the Spanish white coat pig sector, is part of the Spanish Network of the United Nations Global Compact. Within this framework, it is already actively working on 14 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with its own sustainability strategy throughout the value chain.
Among other actions, it organizes Independent Dialogues with experts whose results it transfers to the UN so that others can benefit from this work and the experience of the sector in Spain.
For all these reasons, the director of the Interprofessional concluded by emphasizing that "we are a modern industry that is part of the solution in the fight against climate change".
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