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The Alcohol We Drink and Its Contribution to the Uk's Greenhouse Gas Emissions

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The Alcohol We Drink and Its Contribution to the Uk's Greenhouse Gas Emissions THE ALCOHOL WE DRINK AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO THE UK'S GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS: A DISCUSSION PAPER WORKING PAPER PRODUCED AS PART OF THE WORK OF THE FOOD CLIMATE RESEARCH NETWORK TARA GARNETT CENTRE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGY UNIVERSITY OF SURREY February 2007 Tara Garnett, Food Climate Research Network, [email protected] 1 CONTENTS SCOPE AND PURPOSE .......................................................................................... 4 RESEARCH METHOD, GAPS AND QUALIFICATIONS .......................................... 4 STRUCTURE............................................................................................................ 6 TERMINOLOGY, NOTES AND UNITS OF MEASUREMENT................................... 7 SUMMARY ............................................................................................................. 10 PART ONE: ALCOHOLIC DRINKS IN THE UK ..................................................... 13 1.1. BASIC OVERVIEW .......................................................................................... 13 1.1.a. How much do we drink? ......................................................................... 13 1.1.b. What do we drink and how is this changing? .......................................... 14 1.2. A MORE DETAILED LOOK.............................................................................. 16 1.2.a Beer ....................................................................................................... 16 1.2.b Spirits...................................................................................................... 19 1.2.c. Wine....................................................................................................... 23 PART TWO: ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION AND GREENHOUSE GAS IMPACTS.. 26 2.1. BEER ............................................................................................................... 26 2.1.a. Overview: beer and its life cycle ............................................................. 26 2.1.b. The agricultural stage............................................................................. 27 2.1.c. Malting.................................................................................................... 36 2.1.d. Brewing .................................................................................................. 39 2.1.e. Bottling and packaging ........................................................................... 43 2.2. SPIRITS ........................................................................................................... 46 2.2.a. Agriculture.............................................................................................. 47 2.2.b. Malting ................................................................................................... 50 2.2.c. Distilling.................................................................................................. 51 2.2.d. Bottle production .................................................................................... 54 2.3. WINE................................................................................................................ 54 2.3.a Viticulture ................................................................................................ 55 2.3.b. Wine making .......................................................................................... 57 2.3.c. Bottle production..................................................................................... 60 2.3.d. Wine: identifying the life cycle hotspots .................................................. 60 2.4. TRANSPORT AND LOGISTICS....................................................................... 64 2.4.a. Transport within the UK - freight ............................................................. 64 2.4.b. Transport within the UK: personal transport............................................ 66 2.4.c. Alcohol transport: adding it all up............................................................ 68 2.4.d. Allocating transport emissions by alcohol type ....................................... 70 2.5. CONSUMPTION RELATED ENERGY USE: THE DOMESTIC AND HOSPITALITY SECTORS....................................................................................... 71 2.5.a Refrigeration............................................................................................ 71 2.5.b. Energy use in the hospitality industry ..................................................... 73 Tara Garnett, Food Climate Research Network, [email protected] 2 2.6. ADDING IT ALL UP AND COMPARING THE FIGURES.................................. 75 2.6.a. Alcohol’s contribution to the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions ................ 75 2.6.b. How accurate are these figures likely to be? .......................................... 75 2.6.c. Emissions per unit of alcohol consumed and identifying the hotspots..... 76 2.6.d. Assessing emissions by packaging type and identifying the hotspots..... 77 PART THREE ......................................................................................................... 83 3.1. OPTIONS FOR EMISSIONS REDUCTION: TECHNOLOGICAL IMPROVEMENTS ................................................................................................... 83 3.1.a. Agriculture.............................................................................................. 83 3.1.b. Malting, brewing and distilling................................................................. 83 3.1.c. Packaging............................................................................................... 84 3.1.d.Transport................................................................................................. 90 3.1.e. Energy use in pubs and other premises ................................................. 91 3.2. OPTIONS FOR EMISSIONS REDUCTION: BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE........... 92 3.2.a. How much should we drink?................................................................... 93 3.2.b. The Government’s strategy on alcohol ................................................... 94 3.2.c. How much do we actually drink and what are the implications for greenhouse gas emissions?............................................................................. 95 PART FOUR ........................................................................................................... 99 4.1. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS................................................................ 99 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..................................................................................... 100 Tara Garnett, Food Climate Research Network, [email protected] 3 SCOPE AND PURPOSE This paper looks at the alcohol we consume here in the UK. It considers whether we can quantify in ‘good enough’ terms the contribution that our alcohol consumption makes to the UK’s total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The focus is on the main three categories of alcoholic drink; beer, wine and spirits. Each of these are explored in turn to see what we know about their life cycle impacts and whether there are particular life stages where the GHG impacts are particularly intensive. It also considers whether we might be able to generalise as to whether one particular beverage is more GHG intensive, per alcoholic unit consumed, than another. Following this analysis, the options for emissions reduction are briefly considered. First the technological scope for improving efficiency is explored and here the focus is largely on drinks which can be and are produced in the UK. Wine is excluded from consideration since the vast majority is produced overseas. Next the discussion focuses on behaviour change. It looks at how much people drink, how this relates to current health drinking guidelines and how the overall greenhouse gas impacts of alcohol consumption might change were we to consume within the recommended limits. Finally the paper presents some conclusions. It should be stressed that in so far as is possible the focus of the paper is our consumption rather than the UK’s production of alcoholic drinks. This is an important distinction to make since wine, for example, is almost entirely imported while most of the whisky we produce is exported. Soft drinks and water are not included. This is potentially a substantial omission and it is suggested that further study in these areas would be helpful. RESEARCH METHOD, GAPS AND QUALIFICATIONS Most of the information presented here has been obtained from nationally published government information sources, from trade associations representing the alcohol sector, from overseas studies, from those few academic life cycle studies that exist and from a seminar held on the subject in October 2005. 1 Some of the figures presented are taken from publicly available documents while others rely upon personal communications with industry experts. 2 At the outset it should be said that there is very little published academic literature focusing on the environmental (including greenhouse gas) impact of the alcohol sector. Fairly extensive database, journal and internet searches were performed with combinations of the following key words: beer, alcohol, carbon dioxide, wine, brewing, brewery, breweries, wine, viticulture, viniculture, greenhouse gas emissions, climate change, energy, spirits, whisky, vodka, gin, life cycle assessment and so forth. The journals searched included those with an environmental / life cycle analysis orientation as well as those more specifically
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