1_ Rosé tinted glasses? How a new wine region can adopt existing low carbon practices Ellen Redford Master Thesis Series in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science, No 2016:025 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of Lund University International Master’s Programme in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science (30hp/credits) LUCSUS Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies Rosé tinted glasses? How a new wine region can adopt existing low carbon practices Ellen Redford A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of Lund University International Master’s Programme in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science Submitted May 16, 2016 Supervisor: Kim Nicholas, LUCSUS, Lund University i ii Abstract Decarbonising agriculture is vital to meet the global climate change target of limiting warming to below 2°C above pre-industrial levels. However, the agricultural sector is not a current focus for greenhouse gas reduction. The wine industry is growing and contributes to agricultural emissions. It is therefore important to understand how wine producers can increase their use of low carbon practices to minimise their carbon footprint. To understand how the new and expanding wine region of Sussex can reduce its carbon footprint, I first used a literature review to determine the stages of wine production with the biggest carbon footprint, which are vine growing and bottling. Next, I carried out a wine industry practice review coupled with a questionnaire answered by six global low carbon leaders to find out how and why they are reducing their carbon footprint. I found that they use a variety of low carbon vineyard practices and mainly low carbon lightweight bottles. Economic and environmental reasons motivate low carbon leaders to be carbon neutral and their main barrier is practicality. Finally, Ajzen’s (1991) Theory of Planned behaviour was applied to interviews with ten Sussex wine producers to find out how their intention to use low carbon practices could be increased. Here I found that Sussex wine producers are using low carbon vineyard practices but not bottling practices. Overcoming perceived barriers, including practicality while promoting economic benefits would increase the intention of Sussex wine producers to use more low carbon practices. Learning from existing global low carbon leaders in combination with identifying motivations and barriers perceived by Sussex wine producers to using low carbon practices, could help to understand how to increase the intention of wine producers in emerging wine regions to reduce their carbon footprint. The wine industry could act as a springboard for pioneering low carbon agriculture because producers of high-end wines have relatively more control over production compared to other agricultural products. These practices could potentially be disseminated to help the rest of the agricultural sector reduce its carbon footprint. Keywords: carbon neutral, carbon footprint, climate change, Theory of Planned Behaviour, Sussex, wine industry Word count: 13,940 iii Acknowledgements Thank you to all the Sussex wine producer’s who welcomed me onto their vineyards and gave their time to meet me and be interviewed for this research. I really enjoyed getting to know about their wine and visiting the beautiful sites. Also, thank you to all the ‘low carbon leaders’ who emailed their responses to the questionnaire with such interesting insights into becoming carbon neutral. Thank you to Laura, Noor and Pontus who kept ideas bouncing on the rollercoaster. And thank you to Kim for discussing plans and contingency plans. Thank you to Diana for teaching me ToSIA in Finland. Maybe we can work on it again with less time pressure. Thank you to mum for technical support and Eric for academic insight. Finally, thank you to nana and the aerobics class for their weekly encouragement. iv Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................ iii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... iv 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1 1.1. Study context ....................................................................................................................... 1 1.2. Key definitions ...................................................................................................................... 2 1.2.1. Carbon footprint ................................................................................................................... 2 1.2.2. Life Cycle Assessment ........................................................................................................... 3 1.2.3. Carbon neutral ...................................................................................................................... 3 1.2.4. Wine production stages ........................................................................................................ 4 1.2.5. Low carbon leaders & wine producers ................................................................................. 4 1.3. Research Questions .............................................................................................................. 4 1.4. Relevance for Sustainability Science ..................................................................................... 5 2. Theory of Planned Behaviour ...................................................................................... 6 3. Case Study .................................................................................................................. 8 3.1. Background on Sussex wine .............................................................................................. 8 3.2. The significance of the wine industry in Sussex, England ................................................... 9 3.3. The role of climate change in the Sussex wine industry ....................................................... 10 4. Methodology ............................................................................................................ 12 4.1. Overview of research questions and methods .................................................................... 12 4.2. Literature review ................................................................................................................ 12 4.3. Industry practice review ..................................................................................................... 13 4.5. Low carbon leaders questionnaires ..................................................................................... 14 4.6. Interviews with Sussex wine producers .............................................................................. 15 4.7 Research ethics .................................................................................................................... 16 5. Results ...................................................................................................................... 16 5.1. Literature Review ............................................................................................................... 16 5.1.1.The carbon impact of different stages in wine production ................................................. 16 5.1.2. Why there are discrepancies about the carbon footprint of wine production stages ....... 19 5.2 Industry practice review ...................................................................................................... 21 5.3 Motivations, co-benefits and barriers for global low carbon leaders .................................... 25 5.4 Interview Results ................................................................................................................. 27 5.4.1 Baseline of low carbon practices in Sussex ........................................................................ 28 5.4.2 Attitude to behaviour ....................................................................................................... 29 5.4.3 Social norms ..................................................................................................................... 33 5.4.4 Perceived behavioural control .......................................................................................... 35 5.5. Global vs Sussex wine production ....................................................................................... 37 6. Discussion ................................................................................................................. 39 6.1. Global state of low carbon practices in wine production ..................................................... 39 6.1.1. Current practices to reduce carbon-intensive stages of global wine production ............... 39 6.1.2. Motivations, co-benefits and barriers for global low carbon leaders to become carbon neutral .......................................................................................................................................... 40 6.2. Wine production in Sussex .................................................................................................. 41 6.2.1 Baseline of low carbon wine production practices in Sussex .............................................. 41 6.2.2. Increasing the use of low carbon practices in Sussex ........................................................