Although most attention in reducing greenhouse gas emission is given to carbon dioxide, methane is a potent greenhouse gas with a global warming effect 80 times more potent than that of carbon dioxide on a 20-year scale. Methane is the principal by-product of anaerobic fermentation maintained in the rumen of the animal and is ultimately belched into the atmosphere. The production of ruminant livestock is responsible for about one-quarter of the global anthropogenic methane emissions.

Adding just 2% of a red seaweed in the ruminants’ diet reduced the animals´ methane emissions by over 95%. Translating this discovery into a global solution implies farming this seaweed at a large-scale to meet the needs to an estimated 1.5 billion cattle and 1.2 billion sheep. CCMAR has experience in producing this species of seaweed in land-based cultivation systems. We are now taking this knowledge further to enable sea-based cultivation and unlock its potential to combat climate change.