MECCA: Methane emissions in commodity consumption assessments

Methane emissions are a major driver of climate change and are linked to serious health and food security impacts. Yet policy discussions and reporting frameworks often focus on domestic emissions reductions, while paying less attention to methane emissions embedded in internationally traded goods and driven by consumption in other countries. This leaves an important evidence gap in understanding who drives emissions, where they occur, and where action could be most effective.

MECCA (Methane Emissions in Commodity Consumption Assessments) addresses this gap by developing methods and datasets that connect agricultural methane emissions to trade and consumption. The project will explore and integrate relevant emissions datasets for use in SEI’s consumption and trade modelling frameworks, particularly IOTA and the Global Environmental Impacts of Consumption (GEIC) indicator, and where feasible, Trase-linked analyses. The work focuses on improving visibility of methane emissions from agricultural production systems, including key commodities such as rice, dairy and beef.

The project brings together expertise from SEI York’s Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) and Air Quality, Climate and Environmental Change (AQCEC) research groups, with input from colleagues across Trase and SEI. In addition to producing datasets and analysis, MECCA will develop policy-relevant case studies and communications outputs to help decision makers use consumption-based methane evidence in practice. Planned outputs include contributions to wider assessment processes and stakeholder-facing materials for government and international audiences.

By linking methane emissions more clearly to global commodity consumption, MECCA aims to support more ambitious and supply-chain-aware climate mitigation efforts, while also strengthening the evidence base for future research and collaboration across SEI.