| 1. |
- Bryngelsson, David, 1981, et al.
(författare)
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How Do Dietary Choices Influence the Energy-System Cost of Stabilizing the Climate?
- 2017
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Ingår i: Energies. - : MDPI AG. - 1996-1073 .- 1996-1073. ; 10:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We investigate how different global dietary scenarios affect the constraints on, and costs of, transforming the energy system to reach a global temperature stabilization limit of 2 degrees C above the pre-industrial level. A global food and agriculture model, World Food Supply Model (WOFSUM), is used to create three dietary scenarios and to calculate the CH4 and N2O emissions resulting from their respective food-supply chains. The diets are: (i) a reference diet based on current trends; (ii) a diet with high (reference-level) meat consumption, but without ruminant products (i.e., no beef, lamb, or dairy, only pork and poultry); and (iii) a vegan diet. The estimated CH4 and N2O emissions from food production are fed into a coupled energy and climate-system optimization model to quantify the energy system implications of the different dietary scenarios, given a 2 degrees C target. The results indicate that a phase-out of ruminant products substantially increases the emission space for CO2 by about 250 GtC which reduces the necessary pace of the energy system transition and cuts the net present value energy-system mitigation costs by 25%, for staying below 2 degrees C. Importantly, the additional cost savings with a vegan diet--beyond those achieved with a phase-out of ruminant products--are marginal (only one additional percentage point). This means that a general reduction of meat consumption is a far less effective strategy for meeting the 2 degrees C target than a reduction of beef and dairy consumption.
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| 2. |
- Wirsenius, Stefan, 1963, et al.
(författare)
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Policy strategies for reducing the climate impact of food and agriculture
- 2017
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Ingår i: The Meat Crisis: Developing More Sustainable and Ethical Production and Consumption, Second Edition. - Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2017. | : Routledge. ; , s. 301-316
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this chapter we argue that in order to substantially reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from food production and to preserve natural and agricultural biodiversity, policies that separately address the demand and the supply sides of the food system will be required. Taxes on animal food, and other policies that shift consumption patterns towards less GHG-intensive and land-demanding food, will be crucial for reducing agricultural GHG emissions as well as for mitigating biodiversity losses related to the expansion of agriculture into natural ecosystems. Demand-moderating policies are vital because of the overall low potential for reducing agricultural GHG emissions by technological means, and because of the inherently large land requirements of ruminant meat (beef and lamb) production. However, demand-side policies alone are far from enough. Comprehensive supply-side policies will also be required, especially for containing agricultural land expansion in order to protect biodiversity in tropical regions. Supply-side policies, such as direct subsidies, will also be fundamental for preserving agricultural-related biodiversity in Europe and other regions holding biodiversity-rich permanent pastures. The latter holds for Europe even if no policies that moderate the demand for ruminant meat are put in place, since the low-intensive land use characteristic of these areas in either case is not economically viable in the long run. Furthermore, the biodiversity-rich areas represent a minor share of the total agricultural land in Europe. Therefore, the goal to preserve agricultural biodiversity in Europe should not be taken as a counter-argument against reducing global ruminant meat production by the implementation of demand-moderating policies.
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