Greenhouse gas taxes on animal food products: rationale, tax scheme and climate mitigation effects

Wirsenius, Stefan; Hedenus, Fredrik; Mohlin, Kristina

doi:10.1007/s10584-010-9971-x

Cited by 200 publications

(175 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…A Danish study (Edjabou and Smed 2013) found that a carbon tax on food could decrease the carbon footprint from food for an average household by up to 10%-20%. Wirsenius et al (2011) found that GHG weighted consumption taxes on animal food products in the EU could reduce emissions from EU agriculture by 7%. Nordgren (2012aNordgren ( , 2012b) makes a moral argument in favour of a climate tax on in the first instance the consumption of ruminant meat.…”

Section: Recommendations For a Tax On Ruminant Meat As A First Stepmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Moral Justification Behind a Climate Tax on Beef in Denmark

Lykkeskov¹,

Gjerris

2017

Food ethics

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This paper discusses the moral justification behind placing a tax on foods in correlation with their greenhouse gas emissions. The background is a report from 2016 by the Danish Council of Ethics promoting a national tax on the consumption of meat from ruminants as an initial step to curb the 19-29% of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions stemming from the food sector. The paper describes the contribution of food production and consumption to climate change and how a change in diet, away from ruminant meat in particular, could lead to substantial reductions in GHG emissions from food production and consumption. We discuss whether, given the anticipated effects on humans and the nature of climate change, individual consumers have a moral responsibility to change their diet and/or whether governments are justified in restricting the individual consumer's freedom of choice through taxation in order to effectively reduce emissions. The paper concludes that such an intervention is warranted and necessary, both from an efficiency perspective and from an ethical perspective.

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Section: Recommendations For a Tax On Ruminant Meat As A First Stepmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Moral Justification Behind a Climate Tax on Beef in Denmark

Lykkeskov¹,

Gjerris

2017

Food ethics

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“…educational campaigns) and legal instruments. Many arguments have been made in favour of a meat consumption tax, rather than a meat production tax (79)(80)(81) . It has even been suggested by Chatham House that without government intervention consumers are unlikely to reduce their consumption of animal-based produce (62) .…”

Section: Public Health Nutritionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The climatic impact of food consumption in a representative sample of Irish adults and implications for food and nutrition policy

Hyland

Henchion

McCarthy

et al. 2016

Public Health Nutr.

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To evaluate the greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) associated with the diet of Irish adults. GHGE were estimated by applying conversion factors to habitual food consumption data taken from the National Adult Nutrition Survey, which was representative of the population. Descriptive analyses were undertaken for GHGE for the total population, as well as accounting for energy misreporting and across categories of sociodemographic and socio-economic factors and tertiles of emissions. Republic of Ireland. Adults aged 18–87 years (n 1500). The GHGE derived from daily dietary intakes was estimated as 6·5 kg of CO2 equivalents (CO2eq) per person. Males, younger consumers, those with secondary education and student employment status were associated with significantly higher GHGE. Red meat was the highest contributor to GHGE with 1646 g CO2eq arising from a mean intake of 47 g/d. Dairy and starchy staples were the next largest dietary GHGE sources, with mean daily emissions of 732 g CO2eq and 647 g CO2eq, respectively. The lowest emissions were associated with consumption of vegetables, fruits and legumes/pulses/nuts. Based on profiling using actual food consumption data, it is evident that one single measure is not sufficient and a range of evidence-based mitigation measures with potential to lower emissions throughout the food chain should be considered. The research contributes towards an improved understanding of the climatic impact of the dietary intakes of Irish adults and can serve to inform a sustainability framework to guide action in food and nutrition policy development

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“…An altered diet is both an effective and possibly necessary mitigation strategy to reach long-term climate targets; it is also interesting from a health perspective (Friel et al, 2009;Westhoek et al, 2011). Since the cost of monitoring emissions would be very high in agriculture and large emissions reduction can be achieved by changing consumption patterns, Wirsenius et al (2011) proposed a GHG-weighted consumption tax on meat, dairy and eggs. Such a tax would be neutral between domestic and imported animal products, and would provide incentives for the consumer to change their eating patterns towards less emission-intensive food types.…”

Section: Drivers Of Changes In Emissions Intensities In Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends in greenhouse gas emissions from consumption and production of animal food products – implications for long-term climate targets

Cederberg

Hedenus

Wirsenius

et al. 2013

Animal

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To analyse trends in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from production and consumption of animal products in Sweden, life cycle emissions were calculated for the average production of pork, chicken meat, beef, dairy and eggs in 1990 and 2005. The calculated average emissions were used together with food consumption statistics and literature data on imported products to estimate trends in per capita emissions from animal food consumption. Total life cycle emissions from the Swedish livestock production were around 8.5 Mt carbon dioxide equivalents (CO 2 e) in 1990 and emissions decreased to 7.3 Mt CO 2 e in 2005 (14% reduction). Around two-thirds of the emission cut was explained by more efficient production (less GHG emission per product unit) and one-third was due to a reduced animal production. The average GHG emissions per product unit until the farm-gate were reduced by 20% for dairy, 15% for pork and 23% for chicken meat, unchanged for eggs and increased by 10% for beef. A larger share of the average beef was produced from suckler cows in cow-calf systems in 2005 due to the decreasing dairy cow herd, which explains the increased emissions for the average beef in 2005. The overall emission cuts from the livestock sector were a result of several measures taken in farm production, for example increased milk yield per cow, lowered use of synthetic nitrogen fertilisers in grasslands, reduced losses of ammonia from manure and a switch to biofuels for heating in chicken houses. In contrast to production, total GHG emissions from the Swedish consumption of animal products increased by around 22% between 1990 and 2005. This was explained by strong growth in meat consumption based mainly on imports, where growth in beef consumption especially was responsible for most emission increase over the 15-year period. Swedish GHG emissions caused by consumption of animal products reached around 1.1 t CO 2 e per capita in 2005. The emission cuts necessary for meeting a global temperature-increase target of 28 might imply a severe constraint on the long-term global consumption of animal food. Due to the relatively limited potential for reducing food-related emissions by higher productivity and technological means, structural changes in food consumption towards less emission-intensive food might be required for meeting the 28 target.

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Greenhouse gas taxes on animal food products: rationale, tax scheme and climate mitigation effects

Cited by 200 publications

References 37 publications

The Moral Justification Behind a Climate Tax on Beef in Denmark

The Moral Justification Behind a Climate Tax on Beef in Denmark

The climatic impact of food consumption in a representative sample of Irish adults and implications for food and nutrition policy

Trends in greenhouse gas emissions from consumption and production of animal food products – implications for long-term climate targets

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