Barley: Emissions
A lighter footprint at the farm gate than in the pint
What this tab covers The greenhouse-gas footprint of the commodity at a global level, split by lifecycle phase: extraction (or farming), refining and processing, movement, usage, and recycling or end of life. Intensities are per unit of product; the global total combines intensity with world output. Also covers other environmental impacts and the main levers to cut emissions. Emission intensity 0.40 t CO2e per t range 0.25-0.6 · cradle-to-farm-gate, temperate rain-fed and fertilised barley Global emissions per year 64.0 Mt CO2e per year 2026/27 · 0.4 t CO2e/t x 160 Mt (indicative)Per t of barley grain at farm gate, delivered to first buyer; cradle-to-gate. Intensity: Typical farm-gate LCAs for temperate cereals (ecoinvent / Agri-footprint based summaries), indicative; for comparison, Poore & Nemecek 2018 give 1.18 kg CO2e/kg for barley consumed as beer, including malting and packaging. Global total: derived from USDA PSD and indicative intensity.
Share of footprint by lifecycle phase
Extraction 85% Refining / processing 10% Movement 5%Footprint by lifecycle phase
| Phase | Intensity | Share | Main sources of emissions | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Extraction | about 0.34 t CO2e/t | 85% | manufacture of nitrogen fertiliser, field N2O, diesel for tillage and harvest | lower in dryland Australia and Russia with little fertiliser, higher in high-input Europe per hectare but offset by yield | Typical farm-gate LCAs for temperate cereals (ecoinvent / Agri-footprint based summaries), indicative |
| Refining / processing | about 0.04 t CO2e/t for drying and cleaning; malting adds more | 10% | grain drying; for malt, kilning heat (gas) and electricity | malting energy is a large extra step not included in this grain boundary | Typical farm-gate LCAs for temperate cereals (ecoinvent / Agri-footprint based summaries), indicative |
| Movement | about 0.02 t CO2e/t to first buyer | 5% | truck to elevator; bulk shipping adds roughly 0.01-0.03 t/t on long routes | a quarter of barley is traded, mostly in Handysize to Panamax bulk ships | indicative |
| Usage | not in the boundary | – | feed barley turns into meat and milk, whose emissions are counted there; malt into beer | beer packaging (glass) is why Poore & Nemecek's barley-as-beer figure is about three times the grain figure | Poore & Nemecek 2018 (Science), via Our World in Data (indicative) |
| Recycling / end of life | not applicable | – | spent grain from breweries and malt rootlets go to feed | straw is used for bedding or left on fields | industry practice |
Other environmental impacts
Barley needs less water and nitrogen than wheat and tolerates salty soils. Field N2O is the main climate issue.
Levers to cut emissions
- Nitrogen use efficiency and lower-carbon (green ammonia) fertiliser
- Nitrification inhibitors to cut field N2O
- Renewable heat and heat recovery in malt kilns
- Reduced tillage on dryland farms
India
India grows only about 1.8 Mt, mostly rabi barley in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh on low fertiliser, and imports little (150 kt forecast for 2026/27), so its barley footprint is small (USDA PSD).
Emission figures are indicative global averages from the life-cycle studies named; actual footprints vary widely by site, energy mix and method.