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Mitigation potential and global health impacts from emissions pricing of food commodities

Nature Climate Change volume 7, pages 69–74 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

The projected rise in food-related greenhouse gas emissions could seriously impede efforts to limit global warming to acceptable levels. Despite that, food production and consumption have long been excluded from climate policies, in part due to concerns about the potential impact on food security. Using a coupled agriculture and health modelling framework, we show that the global climate change mitigation potential of emissions pricing of food commodities could be substantial, and that levying greenhouse gas taxes on food commodities could, if appropriately designed, be a health-promoting climate policy in high-income countries, as well as in most low- and middle-income countries. Sparing food groups known to be beneficial for health from taxation, selectively compensating for income losses associated with tax-related price increases, and using a portion of tax revenues for health promotion are potential policy options that could help avert most of the negative health impacts experienced by vulnerable groups, whilst still promoting changes towards diets which are more environmentally sustainable.

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Figure 1: Impacts of GHG taxes on food prices, consumption, and GHG emissions.
Figure 2: Regional health impacts of levying GHG taxes on food commodities.

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Acknowledgements

M.S., P.S., M.R. and H.C.J.G. acknowledge funding from the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food. D.M.-D’C., S.R. and K.W. undertook this work as a part of the Global Futures and Strategic Foresight Program (GFSF), a CGIAR initiative led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nuffield Department of Population Health, Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food, British Heart Foundation Centre on Population Approaches for Non-Communicable Disease Prevention, University of Oxford, Old Road Campus, Oxford OX3 7LF, UK

    Marco Springmann, Mike Rayner & Peter Scarborough

  2. International Food Policy Research Institute, 2033 K Street NW, Washington DC 20006-1002, USA

    Daniel Mason-D’Croz, Sherman Robinson & Keith Wiebe

  3. Department of Zoology, Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK

    H. Charles J. Godfray

Authors
  1. Marco Springmann
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  2. Daniel Mason-D’Croz
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  4. Keith Wiebe
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  5. H. Charles J. Godfray
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  7. Peter Scarborough
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Contributions

M.S. designed the study and conducted the initial analysis. M.S., P.S., D.M.-D’C. and S.R. contributed model components. M.S. wrote the manuscript, with contributions from H.C.J.G. All authors analysed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marco Springmann.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Springmann, M., Mason-D’Croz, D., Robinson, S. et al. Mitigation potential and global health impacts from emissions pricing of food commodities. Nature Clim Change 7, 69–74 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3155

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