Greenhouse gas emissions intensity of food production systems and its determinants

Abstract

It is estimated that about 1/4th of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions may be caused by the global food system. Reducing the GHG emissions from food production is a major challenge in the context of the projected growth of the world’s population, which is increasing demand for food. In this context, the goal should be to achieve the lowest possible emission intensity of the food production system, understood as the amount of GHG emissions per unit of output. The study aimed to calculate the emission intensity of food production systems and to specify its determinants based on a panel regression model for 14 countries, which accounted for more than 65% of food production in the world between 2000 and 2014. In this article, emission intensity is defined as the amount of GHG emissions per value of global output. Research on the determinants of GHG emissions related to food production is well documented in the literature; however, there is a lack of research on the determinants of the emission intensity ratio for food production. Hence, the original contribution of this paper is the analysis of the determinants of GHG emissions intensity of food production systems. The study found the decreased of emission intensity from an average of more than 0.68 kg of CO2 equivalent per USD 1 worth of food production global output in 2000 to less than 0.46 in 2014. The determinants of emission intensity decrease included the yield of cereals, the use of nitrogen fertilizers, the agriculture material intensity, the Human Development Index, and the share of fossil fuel energy consumption in total energy use. The determinants of growth of emission intensity of food production systems included GDP per capita, population density, nitrogen fertilizer production, utilized agriculture area, share of animal production, and energy use per capita.