Greenhouse gas emissions from UK food and drink consumption by systems LCA:current and possible futures

摘要

This work determined the potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions fromthe UK food system by 70% from a 2005 baseline. A food consumption-orientatedinventory was produced including primary agricultural production, foodprocessing, distribution, preparation and disposal. Land use change (LUC) used atop-down approach. The inventory used many sources of data ranging from LCAstudies to national level reporting of energy use by sectors of the economy andhousehold surveys. The inventory was created with systems models to comparescenarios for emission reduction. The inventory for the baseline was 250MtCO2eincluding 100MtCO2e from LUC. Emissions without LUC from the UK food consumptionsystem are about 20% of the current total consumption emissions. Severalmeasures to reduce emissions were investigated, including dietary change,technical efficiency improvement, reducing waste and using non-fossil energy.Only a combination of measures achieved the 70% target reduction, but requiredmajor societal changes.