Soybeans: Emissions
Why beans from cleared land carry a heavier footprint
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 0.50 t CO2e per t range about 0.3-0.7 without land-use change; several t CO2e/t where the beans come from recently cleared land · cradle-to-gate including inland transport, excluding deforestation Global emissions per year 220 Mt CO2e per year 2026/27 · 0.5 t CO2e/t x 443 Mt, excluding land-use change (indicative)Per t of soybeans delivered to port or crusher; cradle-to-gate excluding land-use change unless stated. Intensity: ecoinvent / Agri-footprint based summaries (indicative); Agri-footprint 6.3 Brazil values imply about 4.0 kg CO2e/kg meal and 7.8 kg/kg oil with LUC (derived from Donau Soja factsheet, 2025). Global total: derived from USDA PSD and indicative intensity; Escobar et al. 2020 put CO2 embodied in Brazil's soy exports at 223 Mt over 2010-2015.
Share of footprint by lifecycle phase
Extraction 70% Refining / processing 5% Movement 25%Footprint by lifecycle phase
| Phase | Intensity | Share | Main sources of emissions | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Extraction | about 0.35 t CO2e/t without LUC | 70% | diesel, lime and fertiliser (soy fixes its own nitrogen, so little N fertiliser), plus deforestation and Cerrado conversion where it occurs | soy from some Cerrado municipalities carries up to 200 times the emissions of soy from elsewhere in Brazil | indicative; Escobar et al. 2020, Global Environmental Change 62:102067 |
| Refining / processing | about 0.03 t CO2e/t for drying and storage | 5% | grain drying and elevators; crushing (outside this boundary) uses steam and hexane | crushing allocates emissions between meal and oil | indicative |
| Movement | about 0.12 t CO2e/t | 25% | long truck hauls from Mato Grosso to ports; Panamax to China | in some inland centre-west municipalities transport is about 60% of total emissions | Escobar et al. 2020 (via Mongabay, June 2020); indicative |
| Usage | not in the boundary | – | meal fed to livestock and fish; oil eaten or burned as biodiesel and renewable diesel | biodiesel combustion CO2 is biogenic; its climate benefit depends on avoided land-use change | not quantified |
| Recycling / end of life | not applicable | – | hulls to feed; used soybean oil collected for biodiesel | used cooking oil biodiesel saves roughly 80-90% of fossil diesel emissions | EU Renewable Energy Directive II default values (indicative) |
Other environmental impacts
Deforestation and Cerrado conversion are the main issue. China took 51% and the EU about 30% of the CO2 embodied in Brazil's soy exports in 2010-2015 (Escobar et al. 2020). The EU Deforestation Regulation will require proof of deforestation-free supply.
Levers to cut emissions
- Deforestation-free sourcing: the Amazon Soy Moratorium and the EU Deforestation Regulation
- Expansion onto degraded pasture instead of native vegetation
- Rail and waterway corridors to northern ports to cut long truck hauls
- No-till and biological inputs; soy needs little nitrogen fertiliser
India
India's rain-fed, non-GM crop of about 10-11 Mt is not linked to recent deforestation, but India is the largest soybean oil importer (35.3% of 2024 import value), mainly from Argentina and Brazil, so it imports land-use-change emissions (UN Comtrade 2024).
Emission figures are indicative global averages from the life-cycle studies named; actual footprints vary widely by site, energy mix and method.