FAO’s Global Livestock Environmental Assessment Model (GLEAM) is designed to calculate environmental impacts of livestock agrifood systems.

GLEAM enables policymakers, researchers, and project teams to assess the environmental performance of livestock systems and identify pathways for minimizing those impacts and improving the efficiency of natural resource use. Currently, GLEAM simulates greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as well as water use for animal production from buffalo, camels, cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, and chickens.

For GHG emissions, GLEAM adopts the IPCC Tier 2 methodology and applies a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach, considering both direct farm emissions and indirect emissions throughout the production chain as methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and carbon dioxide (CO2). Water use includes drinking and service water at farm and processing activities as well as water applied to irrigated feed crops.