Abstract
Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus and CO2 emissions for a farm in northwest Iran were analyzed to provide data support for decision-makers formulating national strategies in response to climate change. In the analysis, input–output energy in the production of seven crop species (alfalfa, barley, silage corn, potato, rapeseed, sugar beet, and wheat) was determined using six indicators, water, and energy consumption, mass productivity, and economic productivity. WEF Nexus index (WEFNI), calculated based on these indicators, showed the highest (best) value for silage corn and the lowest for potato. Nitrogen fertilizer and diesel fuel with an average of 36.8% and 30.6% of total input energy were the greatest contributors to energy demand. Because of the direct relationship between energy consumption and CO2 emissions, potato cropping, with the highest energy consumption, had the highest CO2 emissions with a value of 5166 kg CO2eq ha−1. A comparison of energy inputs and CO2 emissions revealed a direct relationship between input energy and global warming potential. A 1 MJ increase in input energy increased CO2 emissions by 0.047, 0.049, 0.047, 0.054, 0.046, 0.046, and 0.047 kg ha−1 for alfalfa, barley, silage corn, potato, rapeseed, sugar beet, and wheat, respectively. Optimization assessments to identify the optimal cultivation pattern, with emphasis on maximized WEFNI and minimized CO2 emissions, showed that barley, rapeseed, silage corn, and wheat performed best under the conditions studied.
Highlights
Climate change is one of the most challenging environmental prob lems today, and the international community has devoted much effort to this issue
Compared with the second (CO2-based) objective function, water and energy consumption, food production, and CO2 emissions increased by 10.5%, 3.15%, 74.6%, and 3%, respectively
Water-energy-food interrelationships were studied using real farm data, and their interactions with water and en ergy consumption and food production were analyzed for seven crops
Summary
Climate change is one of the most challenging environmental prob lems today, and the international community has devoted much effort to this issue. On the 4th of November 2016, the Paris Agreement entered into force, bringing all the nations into a common goal to reduce their Greenhouse Gas emissions and achieve a climate-neutral world by 2050. The food sector alone contributes about 35% of all GHG through energy consumption, land-use change, methane release, and nitrous oxide emissions from fertile soils [1]. Fossil fuels that generate two-thirds of the global CO2 emissions remain predominant [2,3]. CO2 emissions generated from energy system is expected to increase in the future as energy demand is expected to increase by 50% [4]
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