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Climate goals require food systems emission inventories

Nature Food volume 3, page 1 (2022)Cite this article

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To the Editor — The 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change highlighted the need for more ambitious, global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at the pace required to keep climate goals within reach. A side event of COP26, focused on options for a climate-neutral transition towards sustainable food systems and forest management, brought together experts from the European Commission (EC), the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Bank to discuss food sustainability and increasing consumption trends. The side event also marked the release of an updated version of EDGAR-FOOD1 — a globally consistent food emissions database originally developed by the EC Joint Research Centre in 2021. Panellists agreed on the importance of having detailed information on food systems emissions — such as that found in EDGAR-FOOD and, more recently, in the inventory proposed by the FAO Corporate Statistical Database (FAOSTAT)2,3 to inform policy design and effective mitigation efforts. Similar pledges were drawn at the youth4climate event (https://youth4climate.live/) that preceded the COP, at which EDGAR-FOOD was also presented and advocated for by young climate ambassadors. It was emphasized that the quantification of GHG emissions from food systems is a priority. Differences in the carbon footprints of developed and developing countries are opportunities to enhance food systems and the underlying dietary habits.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the EDGAR team (M.C., D.G., M. Banja, E. Schaaf, M. Muntean, E.S., F. Pagani and F. Monforti) for the work needed to publish the EDGAR v6.0 dataset (https://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/overview.php?v=60_GHG). We appreciate FAO’s contribution of LULUC data through its FAOSTAT database (G. Conchedda and F.T.). We also acknowledge S. Federici from the Institute of Global Environment and Society and C. Rosenzweig from the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies for their valuable contributions to this Correspondence.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, Italy

    Monica Crippa & Diego Guizzardi

  2. Unisystems S.A., Milano, Italy

    Efisio Solazzo

  3. Statistics Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy

    Francesco N. Tubiello

  4. European Commission, DG Research & Innovation, Bioeconomy and Food Systems Unit, Bruxelles, Belgium

    Adrian Leip

Authors
  1. Monica Crippa
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  2. Efisio Solazzo
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  3. Diego Guizzardi
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  4. Francesco N. Tubiello
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  5. Adrian Leip
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Contributions

M.C. and E.S. drafted the manuscript. All authors provided critical revision of the manuscript, provided final approval of the published version and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work. At the same time, the views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the FAO and EC.

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Correspondence to Monica Crippa.

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Crippa, M., Solazzo, E., Guizzardi, D. et al. Climate goals require food systems emission inventories. Nat Food 3, 1 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00450-2

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