‘Methodological challenges when establishing the carbon footprint of food for use in a climate tax’
Tues, Nov 8, 10.15-12-00
Baltic University Library, Geocentrum, Villavägen 16, Uppsala
Emma Moberg (Department of Energy and Technology, SLU) will present the paper ‘Methodological challenges when establishing the carbon footprint of food for use in a climate tax’, attached.
The current food system is a significant contributor to climate change, mainly driven by emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from agricultural processes. GHG emissions from agricultural activities in Sweden account for 13% of total GHG emissions within the country. Shifting diet patterns from animal products to greater amounts of plant-based foods has been highlighted as a potential strategy to reduce climate impact from food consumption. However, changing people’s consumption is challenging and there is a need for public policies among which a climate tax on food consumption has been discussed. A climate tax should reflect the carbon footprint (CF) of food products and when accounting for this, several methodological challenges and choices are involved. This study therefore aim to acquire more knowledge about how to design a climate tax on food and will analyze major methodological challenges when establishing the CF of food for use as a base for a climate tax. Further, the study will review the data availability of CF of food and evaluate the data against a set of criteria to examine the suitability of the data for use in a climate tax.