Global food system emissions could preclude achieving the 1.5° and 2°C climate change targets

@article{Clark2020GlobalFS,  title={Global food system emissions could preclude achieving the 1.5° and 2°C climate change targets},  author={Michael A. Clark and Nina G. G. Domingo and Kimberly K Colgan and Sumil K. Thakrar and David Tilman and John Michael Lynch and In{\^e}s M. L. Azevedo and Jason D. Hill},  journal={Science},  year={2020},  volume={370},  pages={705 - 708},  url={https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:226254942}}
It is shown that even if fossil fuel emissions were eliminated immediately, emissions from the global food system alone would make it impossible to limit warming to 1.5°C and difficult even to realize the 2°C target.

813 Citations

Roadmap for achieving net-zero emissions in global food systems by 2050

Food systems (FSs) emit ~ 20 GtCO2e/y (~ 35% of global greenhouse gas emissions). This level tends to raise given the expected increases in food demands, which may threaten global climate targets.…

Dietary GHG emissions from 2.7 billion people already exceed the personal carbon footprint needed to achieve the 2 °C climate goal

Our current global food system is failing to feed the world while simultaneously emitting between 26%–34% of greenhouse gases (GHGs) that alone could preclude us from meeting the Paris climate…

How necessary and feasible are reductions of methane emissions from livestock to support stringent temperature goals?

It is concluded that bringing livestock into mainstream mitigation policies, while recognizing their unique social, cultural and economic roles, would make an important contribution towards reaching the temperature goal of the Paris Agreement and is vital for a limit of 1.5°C.

Curbing global solid waste emissions toward net-zero warming futures

No global analysis has considered the warming that could be averted through improved solid waste management and how much that could contribute to meeting the Paris Agreement’s 1.5° and 2°C pathway…

Food system emissions: a review of trends, drivers, and policy approaches, 1990–2018

The food system, spanning from pre-production processes to post-production stages, is responsible for about one third of global greenhouse gas emissions and requires significant mitigation efforts to…

Pace of adoption of alternatives to animal-source foods is an important factor in reaching climate goals

The global food system is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change. Animal agriculture accounts for a large share of food-system emissions, both directly and…

Future warming from global food consumption

Although the role of the human diet in climate change has been widely acknowledged, current practices fail to capture its realistic effect on warming. In this Analysis, Ivanovich et al. develop a…

Rapid global phaseout of animal agriculture has the potential to stabilize greenhouse gas levels for 30 years and offset 68 percent of CO2 emissions

It is shown that the global warming impact of eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from livestock and allowing native ecosystems to regrow on the land currently used to house and feed livestock, would be equivalent to a 68% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.

Rapid global phaseout of animal agriculture has the potential to stabilize greenhouse gas levels for 30 years and offset 68 percent of CO2 emissions this century

Animal agriculture contributes significantly to global warming through ongoing emissions of the potent greenhouse gases methane and nitrous oxide, and displacement of biomass carbon on the land used…

The Missing Target: Why Industrialized Animal Farming Must Be at the Core of the Climate Agenda

Global greenhouse gas reduction targets are applied to many sectors in many countries, as part of the Nationally Determined Contributions mandated within the Paris Agreement (climate). However,…
...

51 References

Options for keeping the food system within environmental limits

A global model finds that the environmental impacts of the food system could increase by 60–90% by 2050, and that dietary changes, improvements in technologies and management, and reductions in food loss and waste will all be needed to mitigate these impacts.

Contribution of the land sector to a 1.5 °C world

The Paris Agreement introduced an ambitious goal of limiting warming to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. Here we combine a review of modelled pathways and literature on mitigation strategies, and…

Climate Change and Food Systems

Food systems contribute 19%–29% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, releasing 9,800–16,900 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) in 2008. Agricultural production,…

Mitigation potential and global health impacts from emissions pricing of food commodities

The projected rise in food-related greenhouse gas emissions could seriously impede efforts to limit global warming to acceptable levels. Despite that, food production and consumption have long been…

New use of global warming potentials to compare cumulative and short-lived climate pollutants

Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have requested guidance on common greenhouse gas metrics in accounting for Nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to…

Food-miles and the relative climate impacts of food choices in the United States.

It is suggested that dietary shift can be a more effective means of lowering an average household's food-related climate footprint than "buying local" and achieves more GHG reduction than buying all locally sourced food.

Global food demand and the sustainable intensification of agriculture

Per capita demand for crops, when measured as caloric or protein content of all crops combined, has been a similarly increasing function of per capita real income since 1960 and forecasts a 100–110% increase in global crop demand from 2005 to 2050.

Closing yield gaps through nutrient and water management

A global-scale assessment of intensification prospects from closing ‘yield gaps’, the spatial patterns of agricultural management practices and yield limitation, and the management changes that may be necessary to achieve increased yields finds that global yield variability is heavily controlled by fertilizer use, irrigation and climate.

Food Surplus and Its Climate Burdens.

This study provides a systematic approach to estimate consumer level food waste on a country scale and globally, based on food availability and requirements, and estimates the global food surplus may increase up to 850 kcal/cap/day, while the total food requirement will increase only by 2%-20% by 2050.
...

Related Papers

Showing 1 through 3 of 0 Related Papers