Research
Pre- and post-production processes increasingly dominate greenhouse gas emissions from agri-food systems
Francesco Tubiello et al. (2022)
“We find that in 2019, global agri-food system emissions were 16.5 (95 %; CI range: 11–22) billion metric tonnes (Gt CO2 eq. yr−1), corresponding to 31 % (range: 19 %–43 %) of total anthropogenic emissions.
This has important repercussions for food-relevant national mitigation strategies, considering that until recently these have focused mainly on reductions of non-CO2 gases within the farm gate and on CO2 mitigation from land use change.”
Greenhouse gas emissions from food systems: building the evidence base
Francesco Tubiello et al. (2021)
“New estimates of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the food system were developed at the country level...
Our findings also highlight that conventional IPCC categories… systematically underestimate the contribution of the food system to total anthropogenic emissions.”
Finding and fixing food system emissions: the double helix of science and policy
Cynthia Rosenzweig et al. (2021)
“The intention of this paper is not only to highlight the need for better scientific understanding of the processes through which GHGs are emitted—from production to processing, from supply chains and retail to food preparation and waste—but also to integrate science and policy in order to scale up impact on climate change action.”
The carbon opportunity cost of animal-sourced food production on land
Matthew Hayek et al. (2020)
“[S]hifts in global food production to plant-based diets by 2050 could lead to sequestration of 332–547 GtCO2, equivalent to 99–163% of the CO2 emissions budget consistent with a 66% chance of limiting warming to 1.5 °C.”
Climate change responses benefit from a global food system approach
Cynthia Rosenzweig et al. (2020)
“A food system framework breaks down entrenched sectoral categories and existing adaptation and mitigation silos, presenting novel ways of assessing and enabling integrated climate change solutions from production to consumption.”