In 2015, food-system emissions amounted to 18 Gt CO2 equivalent per year globally, representing 34% of total GHG emissions. The largest contribution came from agriculture and land use/land-use change activities (71%), with the remaining were from supply chain activities: retail, transport, consumption, fuel production, waste management, industrial processes and packaging. Temporal trends and regional contributions of GHG emissions from the food system are also discussed.

Food needs to be farmed, harvested or caught, transported, processed, packaged, distributed and cooked, and the residuals disposed of. Each of these steps causes emissions of anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHGs) and requires energy. Inputs such as fertilizers or energy need to be produced and made available at the right time and location1,2,3,4 with additional associated GHG emissions.
Food systems more energy intensive

The report highlights how global food systems are becoming more energy intensive, reflecting trends in retail, packaging, transport and processing, whose emissions are growing rapidly in some developing countries.

Roughly two-thirds of food system emissions come from agriculture, land use and changes in land use. The figure is higher for developing countries, but is also declining significantly as deforestation decreases and food processing, refrigeration and other “downstream activities” increase.

In terms of the share of all ‘anthropogenic’ emissions, caused by human activity, food systems in industrial nations are broadly stable at around 24 per cent. In developing countries, the share has decreased from 68 per cent in 1990 to 39 per cent in 2015, partly due to very high increases in non-food emissions.

China, Indonesia, the United States of America, Brazil, the European Union and India are the top emitters.
Food production the leading contributor

Production processes, which includes inputs such as fertilizers, are the leading contributor to overall food-system emissions, or 39 per cent of the total. Land use accounts for 38 per cent and distribution contributes 29 per cent, which is expected to continue growing.

Methane from livestock raising and rice cultivation accounts for 35 per cent of food system greenhouse gas emissions and is broadly the same in both developed and developing countries.

Meanwhile in industrialized countries, emissions from fluorinated greenhouse gases, used in refrigeration, for example, have had a “turbocharged effect on global warming”, according to the authors.

They said refrigeration is responsible for nearly half of the energy consumption by the retail and supermarket sector, whose emissions have grown more than fourfold in Europe since 1990. Globally, the figure is around five percent of global food-system emissions, but is expected to increase.

Packaging also accounts for a similar share of the emissions, or some 5.4 per cent, which is more than transportation or other supply-chain factors.
Towards sustainable food systems

The authors believe the EDGAR FOOD database will assist towards developing effective mitigation and transformational pathways to sustainable food systems.

It will also provide greater understanding and estimate of the climate effects of food production, distribution and consumption, ahead of the landmark UN Food Systems Summit later this year.