Climate change: US and China must focus on the food system if the world is to achieve net-zero carbon emissions, say climate experts

The world needs to start focusing on the food system if it wants to cut harmful emissions to net-zero, say American and Chinese climate experts

More than a third of global greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity come from the food system, according to a UN-backed study published last year

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A customer shops for food at a supermarket in Fuyang in China. Photo: AFP

Published: 10:00am, 15 May 2022

The world needs to start focusing on the food system if it wants to cut harmful emissions to net-zero, according to American and Chinese climate experts.

A transition to an emissions-free future is crucial, and the two countries should increase collaboration and engagement to achieve this, they said.

“To achieve net-zero, we must zero in on the food system,” said David Sandalow, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, during a webinar on Tuesday. “The food system and the energy system are deeply intertwined.”

More than a third of global greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity come from the food system, according to a United Nations-backed study published last year.

In 2015, the study found, emissions stemming from the way people produce, process and package food, were estimated at 18 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, roughly a third of the global total. Although the share was down from 44 per cent in 1990, the emissions in absolute terms had kept increasing, the report found.

China is the world’s largest agricultural producer, contributing to 25 per cent of international farm produce by value, according to Sally Qiu, research associate at the Center on Global Energy Policy. In 2019, it was the second-largest agricultural emitter in the world, topped by India and followed by Brazil and the United States.