"Agriculture is the sector that fixes most carbon, but it also contributes 10% to emissions,” he acknowledged, while adding that beef itself was only a share of that. “It does not seem that the [global decarbonisation] will be resolved through [reducing] cattle.”

The minister was responding to questions from opposition deputies at a hearing of parliament’s agriculture committee .

At issue were measures foreseen in the government’s the Roadmap for Carbon Neutrality, which aims to make the country neutral in terms of carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. The document, proposed by the minister of the environment, João Pedro Matos Fernandes, foresees a reduction in cattle numbers of between 25% and 50%.

According to Capoulas Santos, the goals set out in the roadmap are achievable without undermining the sector, since lowering cattle output "and compensating with imports from other parts of the world will contribute nothing to decarbonisation".

Although the roadmap comes under the Ministry of the Environment, he said, this is a debate to which "the Ministry of Agriculture is very attentive, eager to participate and to present solutions".

Members of the committee are also pondering calling in the ministers of environment on the subject.

On 5 December the National Confederation of Agricultural Cooperatives and the Agricultural Credit of Portugal (Confagri) announced that the proposals in the roadmap would result in "the delapidation and death of part of the rural world".