Abstract

<strong class="journal-contentHeaderColor">Abstract.</strong> 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<span class="inline-formula"><sub>2</sub></span> eq. yr<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span>), 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<span class="inline-formula"><sub>2</sub></span> eq. yr<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span>; emissions from land use change, due to deforestation and peatland degradation, were 3.5 Gt CO<span class="inline-formula"><sub>2</sub></span> eq. yr<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span>; 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<span class="inline-formula"><sub>2</sub></span> eq. yr<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span>. 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<span class="inline-formula"><sub>2</sub></span> (3.9 Gt CO<span class="inline-formula"><sub>2</sub></span> yr<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span>), preceding land use change (3.3 Gt CO<span class="inline-formula"><sub>2</sub></span> yr<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span>) and farm gate (1.2 Gt CO<span class="inline-formula"><sub>2</sub></span> yr<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span>) emissions. Conversely, farm gate activities were by far the major emitter of methane (140 Mt CH<span class="inline-formula"><sub>4</sub></span> yr<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span>) and of nitrous oxide (7.8 Mt N<span class="inline-formula"><sub>2</sub></span>O yr<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span>). Pre- and post-production processes were also significant emitters of methane (49 Mt CH<span class="inline-formula"><sub>4</sub></span> yr<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span>), 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<span class="inline-formula"><sub>2</sub></span> eq. yr<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span>). They also more than doubled in non-Annex I parties (to 3.5 Gt CO<span class="inline-formula"><sub>2</sub></span> eq. yr<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span>), 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<span class="inline-formula"><sub>2</sub></span> eq. yr<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span>), the USA (700 Mt CO<span class="inline-formula"><sub>2</sub></span> eq. yr<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span>) and the EU-27 (600 Mt CO<span class="inline-formula"><sub>2</sub></span> eq. yr<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span>). This has important repercussions for food-relevant national mitigation strategies, considering that until recently these have focused mainly on reductions of non-CO<span class="inline-formula"><sub>2</sub></span> gases within the farm gate and on CO<span class="inline-formula"><sub>2</sub></span> mitigation from land use change. The information used in this work is available as open data with DOI <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5615082">https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5615082</a> (Tubiello et al., 2021d). It is also available to users via the FAOSTAT database (<span class="uri">https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/EM</span>; FAO, 2021a), with annual updates.

Highlights

  • Agriculture is a significant contributor to climate change as well as the economic sectors most at risk from it.Significant progress has recently resulted in the development of novel databases with global coverage of country-We present and discuss results from the first emissions database in FAOSTAT of food and agriculture emissions.Recent work (Rosenzweig et al, 2021; Tubiello et al, 2021a) helped characterize agri-food systems emissions intoGreenhouse gas (GHG) emissions generated within the farm gate by crop and livestock production and related land use change contribute about one-fifth to one-quarter of total emissions from all human activities, when measured in CO2 equivalents (Mbow et al, 2019; Smith et al, 2014; Vermeulen et al, 2012)

  • We provide here the basic estimation methods used for this work, while referring the interested reader to a series referred to as Industry); Waste; Agriculture; Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF); and Other

  • Over the study period 1990-2019, agrifood systems emissions increased in total by 17%, though they have remained rather constant since about 2006 (Fig. 2). These trends were largely driven by a doubling of emissions from pre- and post-production processes, while land use emissions decreased by 25% and farm gate increased only 9%

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Summary

Gt CO2eq yr-1

Over the study period 1990-2019, agri-food systems emissions increased in total by 17%, largely driven by a doubling of emissions from pre- and post-production processes. Our data show that by 2019, food supply chains had overtaken farm-gate processes to become the largest GHG component of agri-food systems emissions in Annex I parties (2.2 Gt CO2eq yr-1) They more than doubled in non-Annex I parties (to 3.5 Gt CO2eq yr-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 CO2eq yr-1); USA (700 Mt CO2eq yr-1) and EU-27 (600 Mt CO2eq yr-1) 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.

Introduction
Mapping Agri-food Systems
Boundaries
Areas for Advancement
Regional Trends
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