The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday edition that Canada's beef industry is cutting its carbon footprint, but those efforts face big challenges over the coming year as much of Western Canada remains gripped in long-standing drought, a new industry study says. The Post's Matt Scace writes that for the first time since 2016, the Canadian Roundtable of Sustainable Beef (CRSB) -- whose voting members include companies such as Cargill and A&W -- released on Tuesday its progress on emissions reduction, water use and animal care. Among those results include a 15-per-cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in 2021 compared with 2014 levels, it said. The update puts the industry on track to meet its 2030 target of a 33-per-cent emission reduction from 2014 levels, said Ryan Beierbach, chair of the CRSB. However, the potential of worsening drought would require more land being used to produce cattle feed, which would cut into untouched pastures that act as carbon sinks. One of the report's action items is to safeguard 1.5 billion tonnes of carbon on land managed by beef producers and to sequester another 3.4 billion tonnes of carbon every year. Methane emissions from cattle are a big contributor to global warming.