Carbon Footprint of Diets of Norwegian Households - Status and Potential Reductions
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Carbon footprint of diets of Norwegian households - status and potential reductions Aurélie Valentine Stamm Master in Industrial Ecology Submission date: June 2015 Supervisor: Edgar Hertwich, EPT Norwegian University of Science and Technology Department of Energy and Process Engineering I dedicate my thesis to my parents Marie-Gabrielle and Christian Stamm. Their steady support accompanied every choice I made along my education pathway and during any moment of doubt. 1 Abstract English The present work aims at quantifying the current carbon footprint of diets of average Norwegian households with a holistic perspective, and assessing various ways to reduce it. The scope of the research comprises food consumed and food -related activities happening at home, including food transport, storage and preparation. After an introduction of the context of the research, its research question, goal and scope, the report reviews existing literature. It then presents the methods used for its own analysis, and its results. The analysis is then discussed, and the work concludes with a brief review of its main findings and challenges. Two models were built separately. One assesses the carbon footprint of food consumption as well as food waste, and the other makes the same assessment for food supply. Both models served to calculate their associate system’s current carbon footprint, and to build scenarios to assess reduction potentials. The analysis finds higher emissions embodied in food consumption than in food waste and in food supply. An average Norwegian has a diet carrying emissions of 1233 kg CO2-e per year, to which wasted food adds embodied emissions of 114 kg CO 2-e per year, and for which food transport, storage and preparation at home carry emissions of 203 kg CO2-e per year. Main limitations of this analysis comes from uncertainties lying in the data. The present work calls for further research to lower the uncertainty level, and to assess the system’s footprint on other impact categories. 2 Preface This master thesis is carried out as part of the Industrial Ecology master program, Department of Energy and Process Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology. It models and analyzes carbon footprint of the specified system, using methods previously taught as well as independently developed. The thesis was carried out under the supervision of Professor Edgar Hertwich and co - supervision of Doctor Kjartan Steen-Olsen from the Industrial Ecology program at NTNU. The goal and research question were decided in collaboration with Trondheim- based startup Ducky, which will use the results presented at its own ends. Acknowledgments I would like to warmly thank Professor Edgar Hertwich for his appreciated supervision and advices, as well as Doctor Kjartan Steen-Olsen for his precious support, patience and availability. A special thank goes to Trent Ruder and Simon Saxegård for their welcomed proof- reading and language revision. I would also like to thank all of my classmates from the class 2013-2015 of Industrial Ecology, who showed support and solidarity during hard moments. The whole master program is a cherished experience in my life thank to their presence and friendship. Last but not least, I cannot express enough gratitude to my family for supporting my moving to Norway and for unconditionally believing in me. 3 Table of content 1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 8 1.1 Background .............................................................................................. 8 1.2 Research question, goal and scope ............................................................. 9 1.3 Thesis outline ......................................................................................... 10 2 Literature Review ........................................................................................ 11 2.1 Assessments of food consumption carbon footprint .................................. 11 2.1.1 Main approaches ............................................................................... 11 2.1.2 Main methods ................................................................................... 12 2.1.3 Main findings ................................................................................... 13 2.2 Assessments of food-related activities carbon footprint ............................ 13 2.3 Concluding remarks ................................................................................ 14 3 Methods ...................................................................................................... 18 3.1 Carbon footprinting of current Norwegian food-related habits .................. 18 3.1.1 Food consumption carbon footprinting ............................................... 18 3.1.2 Food waste carbon footprinting ......................................................... 20 3.1.3 Food supply activities carbon footprinting ......................................... 20 3.2 Carbon footprinting of reduction scenarios .............................................. 24 3.2.1 Diet scenarios................................................................................... 24 3.2.2 Food supply scenarios ....................................................................... 32 4 Results ........................................................................................................ 35 4.1 Assessment of the current carbon footprint of Norwegian food habits ....... 35 4.1.1 Food consumption carbon footprint assessment .................................. 35 4.1.2 Food waste carbon footprint assessment ............................................ 38 4.1.3 Food supply carbon footprint assessment ........................................... 38 4 4.2 Reduction scenarios potentials ................................................................ 40 4.2.1 Diet scenarios potentials ................................................................... 40 4.2.2 Food supply scenarios potential ........................................................ 42 5 Discussion ................................................................................................... 44 5.1 Reliability of the results ......................................................................... 44 5.1.1 Uncertainties and assumptions .......................................................... 44 5.1.2 Agreement with literature ................................................................. 47 5.2 Further implication of this work .............................................................. 48 5.2.1 Policy suggestions ............................................................................ 48 5.2.2 Further research ............................................................................... 51 6 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 53 5 List of tables Table 1: Methodology summary from the literature reviewErreur ! Signet non défini. Table 2: Excerpt of the multipliers tab ................................................................ 25 Table 3: Values in grams of the vegetarian scenario compared to the baseline ....... 29 Table 4: Foreground to foreground matrix for scenario A ..................................... 33 Table 5: Overview of ownerships made for each scenario ..................................... 34 Table 6: Snapshot of the current average Norwegian diets carbon footprint results 36 Table 7: Ranking of impact reductions from every diet scenarios.......................... 41 Table 8: Ranking of food supply scenarios .......................................................... 43 List of Figures Figure 1: Food supply system for all Norwegian households ................................. 22 Figure 2: Foreground to foreground requirement matrix ....................................... 23 Figure 3: Background to Foreground requirement matrix ...................................... 23 Figure 4: Food supply system for scenario A ....................................................... 33 Figure 5: Overview of the annual performances of the different diet scenarios ...... 41 6 List of abbreviations CO2-e: CO2 equivalent EU: European Union FU: Functional Unit GDP: Gross Domestic Product GHG: Greenhouse Gas GHGE: Greenhouse Gas Emission GWP: Global Warming Potential IOA: Input-Output Analysis LCA: Life-Cycle Assessment LCI: Life-Cycle Inventory w/: with w/o: without WHO: World Health Organization 7 1. Introduction 1.1 Background According to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, “warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level” (Alley et al., 2007). Whether or not this climate change has a natural cause is a continual debate, but international experts agree to say that anthropogenic activities are “very likely” to explain its evolution since the industrial era (Alley et al., 2007). Greenhouse gases, responsible for global warming, are defined as those that “effectively absorb infrared radiation, emitted by the Earth’s surface, by the atmosphere itself due to the same gases, and by clouds”(Baede, Report, Use, Change, & Earth, 1986). The principal gas affecting the Earth’s radiative balance is carbon dioxide (CO2), principally caused by the burning of fossil fuels and land use change (Baede et al., 1986). Agriculture