This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Phalan, B., Ripple, W. J. and Smith, P. (2016), Increasing beef production won't reduce emissions. Glob Change Biol, 22: 3255–3256., which has been published in final form at doi:10.1111/gcb.13436. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.