학술논문
Pre- and post-production processes increasingly dominate greenhouse gas emissions from agri-food systems
Document Type
Academic Journal
Author
Tubiello, Francesco N.; Karl, Kevin; Flammini, Alessandro; Gütschow, Johannes; Obli-Laryea , Griffiths; Conchedda, Giulia; Pan, Xueyao; Qi, Sally Yue; Halldórudóttir Heiðarsdóttir, Hörn; Wanner, Nathan; Quadrelli, Roberta; Rocha Souza, Leonardo; Benoit, Philippe; Hayek, Matthew; Sandalow, David; Mencos Contreras , Erik; Rosenzweig, Cynthia; Rosero Moncayo, Jose; Conforti, Piero; Torero, Maximo
Source
Earth System Science Data. April 14, 2022, Vol. 14 Issue 4, p1795.
Subject
Language
English
ISSN
1866-3508
Abstract
We present results from the FAOSTAT emissions shares database, covering emissions from agri-food systems and their shares to total anthropogenic emissions for 196 countries and 40 territories for the period 1990-2019. We find that in 2019, global agri-food system emissions were 16.5 (95 %; CI range: 11-22) billion metric tonnes (Gt CO.sub.2 eq. yr.sup.-1 ), corresponding to 31 % (range: 19 %-43 %) of total anthropogenic emissions. Of the agri-food system total, global emissions within the farm gate - from crop and livestock production processes including on-farm energy use - were 7.2 Gt CO.sub.2 eq. yr.sup.-1 ; emissions from land use change, due to deforestation and peatland degradation, were 3.5 Gt CO.sub.2 eq. yr.sup.-1 ; and emissions from pre- and post-production processes - manufacturing of fertilizers, food processing, packaging, transport, retail, household consumption and food waste disposal - were 5.8 Gt CO.sub.2 eq. yr.sup.-1 . Over the study period 1990-2019, agri-food system emissions increased in total by 17 %, largely driven by a doubling of emissions from pre- and post-production processes. Conversely, the FAOSTAT data show that since 1990 land use emissions decreased by 25 %, while emissions within the farm gate increased 9 %. In 2019, in terms of individual greenhouse gases (GHGs), pre- and post-production processes emitted the most CO.sub.2 (3.9 Gt CO.sub.2 yr.sup.-1 ), preceding land use change (3.3 Gt CO.sub.2 yr.sup.-1) and farm gate (1.2 Gt CO.sub.2 yr.sup.-1) emissions. Conversely, farm gate activities were by far the major emitter of methane (140 Mt CH.sub.4 yr.sup.-1) and of nitrous oxide (7.8 Mt N.sub.2 O yr.sup.-1). Pre- and post-production processes were also significant emitters of methane (49 Mt CH.sub.4 yr.sup.-1 ), mostly generated from the decay of solid food waste in landfills and open dumps. One key trend over the 30-year period since 1990 highlighted by our analysis is the increasingly important role of food-related emissions generated outside of agricultural land, in pre- and post-production processes along the agri-food system, at global, regional and national scales. In fact, our data show that by 2019, pre- and post-production processes had overtaken farm gate processes to become the largest GHG component of agri-food system emissions in Annex I parties (2.2 Gt CO.sub.2 eq. yr.sup.-1). They also more than doubled in non-Annex I parties (to 3.5 Gt CO.sub.2 eq. yr.sup.-1 ), becoming larger than emissions from land use change. By 2019 food supply chains had become the largest agri-food system component in China (1100 Mt CO.sub.2 eq. yr.sup.-1 ), the USA (700 Mt CO.sub.2 eq. yr.sup.-1) and the EU-27 (600 Mt CO.sub.2 eq. yr.sup.-1). This has important repercussions for food-relevant national mitigation strategies, considering that until recently these have focused mainly on reductions of non-CO.sub.2 gases within the farm gate and on CO.sub.2 mitigation from land use change. The information used in this work is available as open data with DOI https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5615082 (Tubiello et al., 2021d). It is also available to users via the FAOSTAT database (https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/EM; FAO, 2021a), with annual updates.
Byline: Francesco N. Tubiello, Kevin Karl, Alessandro Flammini, Johannes Gütschow, Griffiths Obli-Laryea, Giulia Conchedda, Xueyao Pan, Sally Yue Qi, Hörn Halldórudóttir Heiðarsdóttir, Nathan Wanner, Roberta Quadrelli, Leonardo Rocha Souza, Philippe [...]
Byline: Francesco N. Tubiello, Kevin Karl, Alessandro Flammini, Johannes Gütschow, Griffiths Obli-Laryea, Giulia Conchedda, Xueyao Pan, Sally Yue Qi, Hörn Halldórudóttir Heiðarsdóttir, Nathan Wanner, Roberta Quadrelli, Leonardo Rocha Souza, Philippe [...]