Cymraeg What’s the Issue?
The 2016 Paris Agreement recognised that limiting global temperature increases to 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures would significantly reduce the risks of devastating changes to weather patterns, ecosystems, food security and human health when compared to temperature rises of 2C or more. To achieve this target the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that net emissions of CO₂ have to be 45% by 2030, while CH4 emissions have to be reduced by 35% or more relative to 2010 levels.
The UK Committee on Climate Change calculated that agriculture in the UK is responsible for 10% of economy wide emissions. However, direct emissions from agriculture are only part of the picture. To understand the full impact of food and farming, we have to account for the contributions of the food system in packaging, waste, transportation and refrigeration, and of land-use change overseas – the deforestation and cultivation of pasture for production of commercial commodity crops and animal feeds that the UK consumes.
When estimates are extended to include emissions from the wider food chain (excluding land-use change) they increase to around 20% of UK emissions, and to over 30% when factoring in food consumption induced land use change.
It is clear that to address agriculture’s influence on the climate, we must take into account the wider food system, particularly the impacts of land-use change in other parts of the world that are driven by food imports and dietary habits.
Acting to mitigate climate change through agriculture requires systemic thinking that recognises agriculture and the food system as a complex whole, and envisions change beyond domestic emissions and targets. Without understanding the connections between our consumption, agricultural production, distribution, and the environment, we will not be able to address the challenges we face.
