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Eugene

(61,595 posts)
Fri Nov 6, 2020, 07:34 AM Nov 2020

Global food production emissions 'would put Paris agreement out of reach'

Source: The Guardian

Global food production emissions 'would put Paris agreement out of reach'

Study calls for more focus on farming and food waste, behind a third of greenhouse gas production

Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent
Thu 5 Nov 2020 19.00 GMT

Our diets and agricultural production around the world are so carbon-intensive that emissions from the global food system alone would be enough to put the Paris climate goals out of reach, even if all the other major sources of emissions were closed down, research has shown.

Farming and food account for about a third of global greenhouse gas production at present. The world’s food systems produced about 16bn tonnes a year of CO2 from 2012 to 2017.

While emissions from some other carbon-intensive sectors, such as energy generation, have been slowing as clean technology is more widely adopted, farming has received less attention from policymakers. But if emissions from food production continue on current trends, they will rise to a cumulative 1,356 gigatons by the end of the century, according to a study in the journal Science.

That would be enough in itself to heat the world by more than 1.5C by the 2060s, and probably by about 2C by the end of the century. Under the Paris agreement, nations are bound to hold temperature rises to no more than 2C above pre-industrial levels, with an aspiration to a 1.5C limit.

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Deforestation and the conversion of land from peatlands, wetlands and other natural habitats are major contributors to the climate crisis. Other major sources of emissions from food production are artificial fertilisers; methane from livestock; methane from rice in paddyfields; and livestock manure.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/05/global-food-production-emissions-would-put-paris-agreement-out-of-reach

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