Agriculture might appear green by definition but farming accounts for a very large amount of greenhouse gas emissions when the entire food production system is taken into account. Commonly mentioned are estimates from agriculture ranging from 11%-15% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
However, startling new estimates by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) discussed at the 2014 UN Climate Summit now put that number closer to 50% of global emissions.
This is an important calculation as climate change issues come to the forefront of media, government and worldwide attention with global greenhouse gas emissions jumping 2.3% in 2013 to record levels—with China’s growing population currently being the world’s single largest source of emissions.
The estimates come from Grain, an international non-profit research foundation that contributed to UN the report. Existing data on global greenhouse gas emissions was analysed to determine the full extent of agriculture’s emissions.
Why the Difference in Greenhouse Gas Emission Estimates
The UNCTAD’s Trade and Environment 2013 Review now places global emission estimates at 43-57% as it looks at food production more broadly to also include emissions from land use, change and deforestation, as well as the processing, packaging, transport and the sale of agricultural products, and food waste.
Previously, estimates at 11%-15% of global greenhouse gas emissions only took into account emissions from the farming part of agriculture and excluded a wide range of relating activities. Activities such as mechanical equipment, soil management, fertilising, and manure management have been left out of estimates and did not include critical activities like transport, food processing, packaging, and sale of agricultural products.
The estimates by the US Environmental Protection Agency are typical of this and surprising to some people is the fact that the industrial food system discards up to half of all the food that it produces in its journey from farms to traders, to food processors, to stores and supermarkets—this is enough to feed the world’s hungry 6 times over.
According to Ulrich Hoffmann, senior trade policy adviser to the director of the International Trade Division of the secretariat of UNCTAD and editor of its 2013 Review, defining agriculture more broadly paints a better picture of the issue at hand. Mr. Hoffmann stated that:
It all depends on how you define system coverage. If you look at agriculture like you would look at the steel industry, which includes all transport-related emissions, then the 50% agriculture emissions figure is quite accurate.
Sources: The Numbers, NY Times, Review (PDF).
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