, say that the growth of the global population and rising demand for emission-intensive food are likely to boost emissions further.
The first author, Yanxian Li, a PhD student at the University of Groningen added that “Mitigating emissions at every stage of food supply chains from production to consumption is critical if we are to limit global warming. However, widespread and lasting diet shifts are very difficult to achieve quickly, so incentives that encourage consumers to reduce red meat or buy products with higher environmental dividends could help to reduce food emissions.
Annual global GHG emissions associated with food increased by 14% over the 20-year period. The substantial increase in consuming animal-based products contributed to some 95% of the global emissions rise, accounting for almost half of total food emissions. Beef and dairy contributed 32% and 46% of the increase in global animal-based emissions.
Soybean and palm oil have the largest shares in global emissions from oil crops with 30% and 46%, respectively. Indonesia, the world’s leading consumer of palm oil, has the largest emissions from palm oil , followed by Southeast Asia , Western Europe , and China .