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Liu Y, Gu W, Liu B, Zhang C, Wang C, Yang Y, Zhuang M. Closing Greenhouse Gas Emission Gaps of Staple Crops in China. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2022; 56:9302-9311. [PMID: 35728519 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.2c01978] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
China is facing the dual challenge of achieving food security and agricultural carbon neutrality. Developing spatially explicit crop emission profiles can help inform policy to mitigate agricultural greenhouse gases (GHGs), but previous life-cycle studies were conducted mostly at national and provincial levels. Here, we estimate county-level carbon footprint of China's wheat and maize production based on a nationwide survey and determine the contribution of different strategies to closing regional emission gaps. Results show that crop carbon footprint varies widely between regions, from 0.07 to 3.00 kg CO2e kg-1 for wheat and from 0.09 to 2.30 kg CO2e kg-1 for maize, with inter-county variation generally much higher than interprovince variation. Hotspots are mainly concentrated in Xinjiang and Gansu provinces, owing to intensive irrigation and high plastic mulch and fertilizer inputs. Closing the regional emission gaps would benefit mostly from increasing crop yields and nitrogen use efficiency, but increasing manure use (e.g., in Northeast, East, and Central China) and energy use efficiency (e.g., in North and Northwest China) can also make important contributions. Our county-level carbon footprint estimates improve upon previous broad-scale results and will be valuable for detailed spatial analysis and the design of localized GHG mitigation strategies in China.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yize Liu
- College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, National Academy of Agriculture Green Development, Key Laboratory of Plant-Soil Interactions, Ministry of Education, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, P. R. China
| | - Weiyi Gu
- State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control & Resource Reuse, School of Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, P. R. China
| | - Beibei Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control & Resource Reuse, School of Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, P. R. China
| | - Chao Zhang
- School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, P. R. China
| | - Chun Wang
- State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Food Chain Pollution Control, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing 100048, China
| | - Yi Yang
- Key Laboratory of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region's Eco-Environment, Ministry of Education, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400045, P. R. China
| | - Minghao Zhuang
- College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, National Academy of Agriculture Green Development, Key Laboratory of Plant-Soil Interactions, Ministry of Education, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, P. R. China
- State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Sources and Control of Air Pollution Complex, Beijing 100084, China
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Lathuillière MJ, Patouillard L, Margni M, Ayre B, Löfgren P, Ribeiro V, West C, Gardner TA, Suavet C. A Commodity Supply Mix for More Regionalized Life Cycle Assessments. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2021; 55:12054-12065. [PMID: 34375533 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.1c03060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Supply chain information is invaluable to further regionalize product life cycle assessments (LCAs), but detailed information linking production and consumption centers is not always available. We introduce the commodity supply mix (CSM) defined as the trade-volume-weighted average representing the combined geographic areas for the production of a commodity exported to a given market with the goal of (1) enhancing the relevance of inventory and impact regionalization and (2) allocating these impacts to specific markets. We apply the CSM to the Brazilian soybean supply chain mapped by Trase to obtain the mix of ecoregions and river basins linked to domestic consumption and exports to China, EU, France, and the rest of the world, before quantifying damage to biodiversity, and water scarcity footprints. The EU had the lowest potential biodiversity damage but the largest water scarcity footprint following respective sourcing patterns in 12 ecoregions and 18 river basins. These results differed from the average impact scores obtained from Brazilian soybean production information alone. The CSM can be derived at different scales (subnationally, internationally) using existing supply chain information and constitutes an additional step toward greater regionalization in LCAs, particularly for impacts with greater spatial variability such as biodiversity and water scarcity.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Laure Patouillard
- CIRAIG, Polytechnique Montreal, 3333 Queen Mary Rd suite 310, Montreal, Quebec H3V 1A2, Canada
| | - Manuele Margni
- CIRAIG, Polytechnique Montreal, 3333 Queen Mary Rd suite 310, Montreal, Quebec H3V 1A2, Canada
- HES-SO, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Institute of Sustainable Energy, School of Engineering, Rue de l'Industrie 23, 1950 Sion, Switzerland
| | - Ben Ayre
- Global Canopy, 3 Frewin Court, Oxford OX1 3HZ, U.K
| | - Pernilla Löfgren
- Stockholm Environment Institute, Linnégatan 87D, Box 24218, 104 51 Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Vivian Ribeiro
- Stockholm Environment Institute, Linnégatan 87D, Box 24218, 104 51 Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Chris West
- Department of Environment and Geography, Environment Building, Stockholm Environment Institute York, Wentworth Way, University of York, York YO10 5NG, U.K
| | - Toby A Gardner
- Stockholm Environment Institute, Linnégatan 87D, Box 24218, 104 51 Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Clément Suavet
- Stockholm Environment Institute, 400 F Street, Davis, California 95616, United States
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Promoting potato as staple food can reduce the carbon–land–water impacts of crops in China. NATURE FOOD 2021; 2:570-577. [PMID: 37118165 DOI: 10.1038/s43016-021-00337-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2020] [Accepted: 07/07/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
China has recently implemented a policy to promote potato as a national staple food and to close its large yield gaps with other countries. The carbon-land-water implications of this policy are examined here by compiling and analysing detailed city-level life-cycle inventories of China's staple crops. We find that in general potato, despite relatively low yields, has lower greenhouse gas emissions and water demand than other staple crops (maize, wheat and rice) on a per-calorie basis, but substantial regional variation exists for each crop. Integrating potato as a staple in China to meet increases in food demand and close the yield gap has the potential to reduce the total carbon-land-water impacts of staple crops by 17-25% by 2030. However, an unsuccessful integration runs the risk of global burden-shifting if the policy, for example, reduced domestic rice production and led to increased rice imports. Potential synergies between food security and environmental sustainability in China can be created by the potato policy, but greater efforts are needed to promote potato across the entire food supply chain from production to consumption.
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Vaishnav P, Fatimah AM. The Environmental Consequences of Electrifying Space Heating. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2020; 54:9814-9823. [PMID: 32648744 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.0c02705] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Decarbonization may require the efficient electrification of applications, like natural gas furnaces for space heating, that currently involve burning fossil fuels. The environmental consequences of such a fuel switch depend on location and time. Here we show that, in most parts of the U.S., a switch from natural gas to electric heat pumps would raise household heating bills and increase damages from carbon dioxide (CO2) and other pollutants. For single-family homes in 658 of the 883 locations we analyze, a shift to heat pumps would increase annual hourly peak demand for electricity. For 265 of these 658 locations peak demand already occurred in winter; for the remaining 393 heat pumps would shift peak demand from summer to winter. An economy-wide tax on CO2 emissions designed to substantially decarbonize electricity generation would make a switch to heat pumps beneficial for the environment and make electrified heating cheaper than burning natural gas. However, a sufficiently large tax would increase heating bills in cold parts of the country much more than in places with more moderate climates, even while making electric heat pumps cheaper to operate than natural gas furnaces. This differential impact raises questions about the feasibility of a carbon tax that is returned to each citizen as a uniform dividend.
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Affiliation(s)
- Parth Vaishnav
- Department of Engineering & Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, United States
| | - Adilla Mulia Fatimah
- Energy Science, Technology and Policy Program; Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, United States
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Dai T, Yang Y, Lee R, Fleischer AS, Wemhoff AP. Life cycle environmental impacts of food away from home and mitigation strategies-a review. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2020; 265:110471. [PMID: 32292177 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.110471] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2019] [Revised: 02/27/2020] [Accepted: 03/20/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Food production and consumption are major drivers of global environmental change, endangering the safe operating space of many environmental areas. Globally, there has been a growing trend of dining out, termed food away from home (FAFH) here, but its environmental sustainability has received insufficient attention. In this review, we examine studies quantifying the life-cycle environmental impacts of FAFH and identify mitigation strategies across the food supply chain. Overall, previous life cycle assessment (LCA) studies focused on the composition of FAFH meals and pre-use life cycle stages, especially food production. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of FAFH meals range from 0.134 kg CO2 e/meal to 13.2 kg CO2 e/meal for school canteen meals, and from 0.60 kg CO2 e/meal to 9.6 kg CO2 e/meal for other catering services. Meat ingredients are the dominant source in a variety of environmental impact categories, and the food production stage usually accounts for over half of the total GHG emissions in the FAFH life cycle. Supply side mitigation strategies include advancing farming practices, updating cold transportation technology, and improving building energy efficiency. Demand side mitigation focuses on dietary change towards meals with less meat ingredients, with nudging and sustainable menu-designing as the two primary groups of strategies. Areas of focus for LCA include improving modeling of building energy consumption related to food consumption, advancing uncertainty characterization of life cycle results, and capturing geographical variations in food production.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tao Dai
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Villanova University, 800 Lancaster Ave., Villanova, PA, 19085, USA.
| | - Yi Yang
- Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems, University of Minnesota, St Paul, 1390 Eckles Ave, St Paul, MN, 55108, USA; Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, 361021, PR China.
| | - Ross Lee
- Sustainable Engineering Program, Villanova University, 800 Lancaster Ave., Villanova, PA, 19085, USA
| | - Amy S Fleischer
- College of Engineering, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA
| | - Aaron P Wemhoff
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Villanova University, 800 Lancaster Ave., Villanova, PA, 19085, USA.
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