Say Australia digs up some coal, ships it to China, it’s used to power factories and smelters to produce goods, then those goods are shipped to and used by Americans. Is there consensus on who the pollution from burning coal gets tied to? Or does it vary per report and article?

Sustainable energy without the hot air does this, it's a great book though I've heard it's somewhat outdated now.

It’s great that both approaches exist, because they surface different conclusions. If you want to see where the actual emissions are being emitted, or what “industry” they’re from, then the production-based accounting will give you that. If you instead want to see what different consumer-level behaviors are responsible for most emissions then you’ll need a consumption-based accounting.

That duality is what makes it hard for people to grok carbon accounting estimates sometimes.

- Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from owned or controlled sources. - Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy. - Scope 3 emissions are all indirect emissions (not included in scope 2) that occur in the value chain of the reporting company, including both upstream and downstream emissions.

So grain purchased and shipped to the animals is measured under Scope 3. Powering the lights and machinery on the farm is Scope 2.

It's tricky and inexact to do GHG accounting, but the same methodology and emissions factors are used everywhere so at least it's comparable between companies and products.

Cattle produces a lot of methane, which has a very powerful greenhouse effect, a lot more powerful than CO2. So while it does not contribute to CO2 emissions that much, it contributes to the greenhouse effect proportionally a lot more.

[1] https://onezero.medium.com/cow-farts-are-not-the-problem-f57...