Abstract
Dietary climate impact in a Swedish population (56–95 years old) was estimated based on self-reported food intake from 50 000 men and women within two population-based cohorts and on climate data, covering emissions from farm to fork, for 600 foods representative for the Swedish market. Aims were to assess variation in dietary climate impact between population groups and between food categories. Mean dietary climate impact was 2.0 tons of CO2e/person/year, with about a threefold variation between high and low impact individuals. Food loss and waste accounted for 18%. Older individuals and women on average had lower total dietary climate impact per year, while differences between gender were smaller per 1000 kcal. Climate impact was greatly affected by dietary composition and especially by the content of animal-based and discretionary foods, responsible for 71% and 12% of total climate impact, respectively. Results indicate a large potential for reduced climate impact by adopting realistic dietary patterns. Suggested strategies to reach climate goals include reduction of red meat and prioritising lower impact foods within meat, dairy and seafood categories, limited consumption of discretionary foods and decreased over-consumption of total calories, combined with improvements in production including reduction of food loss and waste.
Highlights
Production and consumption of food is identified as one of the key drivers of climate change, estimated to be responsible for between 21 and 37% of global greenhouse gas emission (GHGE) (IPCC, 2019)
Results for weighted dietary GHGE, reflecting the Swedish population based on Swedish age distribution, generated overall small deviations, demonstrating a representative study population in terms of age
Climate impact from edible food losses and waste along the food chain accounted for 0.35 tons of CO2e/person/year, corresponding to 18% of the mean dietary GHGE in the population
Summary
Production and consumption of food is identified as one of the key drivers of climate change, estimated to be responsible for between 21 and 37% of global greenhouse gas emission (GHGE) (IPCC, 2019). Dramatic reduction of GHGE is needed within the decades to meet climate goals and minimize hazardous effects from global temperature rise. This will require large efforts on all fronts including major changes in current ways of producing and consuming food. Many studies have assessed climate impact of individual foods and overall diets (Aleksandrowicz et al, 2016; Clune et al, 2017; Poore and Nemecek, 2018) These studies have led to major knowledge gains, limitations in underlying methods affecting the quality of results are remaining (Ridoutt et al, 2017). Climate data used are often from sources using different assessment methods and are seldom representative for the market under study, impairing comparability and undermining quality, as climate impact can vary greatly depending on differences in food production methods and region-specific conditions (Sandstro€m et al, 2018)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
