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Mitigating the greenhouse gas emissions of food through realistic consumer choices

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Mitigating the greenhouse gas emissions of food through realistic consumer choices. / Hoolohan, Claire; Berners-Lee, Mike; McKinstry-West, James et al.
In: Energy Policy, Vol. 63, 12.2013, p. 1065-1074.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

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Hoolohan C, Berners-Lee M, McKinstry-West J, Hewitt CN. Mitigating the greenhouse gas emissions of food through realistic consumer choices. Energy Policy. 2013 Dec;63:1065-1074. Epub 2013 Oct 1. doi: 10.1016/j.enpol.2013.09.046

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Hoolohan, Claire ; Berners-Lee, Mike ; McKinstry-West, James et al. / Mitigating the greenhouse gas emissions of food through realistic consumer choices. In: Energy Policy. 2013 ; Vol. 63. pp. 1065-1074.

Bibtex

@article{5132b43eb12c4948a286fdfe9829c2d8,
title = "Mitigating the greenhouse gas emissions of food through realistic consumer choices",
abstract = "The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions embodied in 66 different food categories together with self-reported dietary information are used to show how consumer choices surrounding food might lead to reductions in food-related GHG emissions. The current UK-average diet is found to embody 8.8 kg CO2e person−1 day−1. This figure includes both food eaten and food wasted (post-purchase). By far the largest potential reduction in GHG emissions is achieved by eliminating meat from the diet (35% reduction), followed by changing from carbon-intensive lamb and beef to less carbon-intensive pork and chicken (18% reduction). Cutting out all avoidable waste delivers an emissions saving of 12%. Not eating foods grown in hot-houses or air-freighted to the UK offers a 5% reduction in emissions. We show how combinations of consumer actions can easily lead to reductions of 25% in food related GHG emissions. If such changes were adopted by the entire UK population this would be equivalent to a 71% reduction in the exhaust pipe emissions of CO2 from the entire UK passenger car fleet (which totalled 71 Mt CO2e year−1 in 2009).",
keywords = "Food, climate change, Greenhouse gas emissions",
author = "Claire Hoolohan and Mike Berners-Lee and James McKinstry-West and Hewitt, {C. N.}",
year = "2013",
month = dec,
doi = "10.1016/j.enpol.2013.09.046",
language = "English",
volume = "63",
pages = "1065--1074",
journal = "Energy Policy",
issn = "0301-4215",
publisher = "Elsevier BV",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Mitigating the greenhouse gas emissions of food through realistic consumer choices

AU - Hoolohan, Claire

AU - Berners-Lee, Mike

AU - McKinstry-West, James

AU - Hewitt, C. N.

PY - 2013/12

Y1 - 2013/12

N2 - The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions embodied in 66 different food categories together with self-reported dietary information are used to show how consumer choices surrounding food might lead to reductions in food-related GHG emissions. The current UK-average diet is found to embody 8.8 kg CO2e person−1 day−1. This figure includes both food eaten and food wasted (post-purchase). By far the largest potential reduction in GHG emissions is achieved by eliminating meat from the diet (35% reduction), followed by changing from carbon-intensive lamb and beef to less carbon-intensive pork and chicken (18% reduction). Cutting out all avoidable waste delivers an emissions saving of 12%. Not eating foods grown in hot-houses or air-freighted to the UK offers a 5% reduction in emissions. We show how combinations of consumer actions can easily lead to reductions of 25% in food related GHG emissions. If such changes were adopted by the entire UK population this would be equivalent to a 71% reduction in the exhaust pipe emissions of CO2 from the entire UK passenger car fleet (which totalled 71 Mt CO2e year−1 in 2009).

AB - The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions embodied in 66 different food categories together with self-reported dietary information are used to show how consumer choices surrounding food might lead to reductions in food-related GHG emissions. The current UK-average diet is found to embody 8.8 kg CO2e person−1 day−1. This figure includes both food eaten and food wasted (post-purchase). By far the largest potential reduction in GHG emissions is achieved by eliminating meat from the diet (35% reduction), followed by changing from carbon-intensive lamb and beef to less carbon-intensive pork and chicken (18% reduction). Cutting out all avoidable waste delivers an emissions saving of 12%. Not eating foods grown in hot-houses or air-freighted to the UK offers a 5% reduction in emissions. We show how combinations of consumer actions can easily lead to reductions of 25% in food related GHG emissions. If such changes were adopted by the entire UK population this would be equivalent to a 71% reduction in the exhaust pipe emissions of CO2 from the entire UK passenger car fleet (which totalled 71 Mt CO2e year−1 in 2009).

KW - Food

KW - climate change

KW - Greenhouse gas emissions

U2 - 10.1016/j.enpol.2013.09.046

DO - 10.1016/j.enpol.2013.09.046

M3 - Journal article

VL - 63

SP - 1065

EP - 1074

JO - Energy Policy

JF - Energy Policy

SN - 0301-4215

ER -