Environmental Impact and Carbon Footprint Assessment of Taiwanese Agricultural Products: A Case Study on Taiwanese Dongshan Tea

Allen H. Hu, Chia-Hsiang Chen, Lance Hongwei Huang, Ming-Hsiu Chung, Yi-Chen Lan and Zhonghua Chen
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Allen H. Hu: Institute of Environmental Engineering and Management, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 106, Taiwan
Chia-Hsiang Chen: Institute of Environmental Engineering and Management, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 106, Taiwan
Lance Hongwei Huang: Institute of Environmental Engineering and Management, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 106, Taiwan
Ming-Hsiu Chung: Institute of Environmental Engineering and Management, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 106, Taiwan
Yi-Chen Lan: School of Business, University of Western Sydney, Penrith South DC, NSW 2750, Australia
Zhonghua Chen: Natural Science, University of Western Sydney, Penrith South DC, NSW 2750, Australia

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Climate change is an important global environmental threat. Agriculture aggravates climate change by increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and in response, climate change reduces agricultural productivity. Consequently, the modern agricultural development mode has progressively transformed into a kind of sustainable development mode. This study aimed to determine the environmental impact and carbon footprint of Dongshan tea from Yilan County. Environmental impact was assessed with use of SimaPro version 8.0.2 and IMPACT2002+. Results showed that climate change has the largest impact upon it in general, followed by human health, natural resources, and ecosystem quality. Furthermore, with use of the IPCC 2007 100a method for carbon footprint of products (CFP), conventional tea was found to have a CFP of 7.035 kgCO 2 -e, and its main contributors are the raw material (35.15%) and consumer use (45.58%) phases. From this case study, we found that the hotspots of the life cycle of environmental impact of Taiwanese tea mainly come from fertilizer input during the raw material phase, electricity use during manufacturing, and electricity use during water boiling in the consumer use phase (which contributes the largest impact). We propose the ways for consumers to use of highly efficient boiling water facilities and heating preservation, and the government must market the use of organic fertilizers in the national policy subsidies, and farmers have to prudent use of fertilizers and promote the use of local raw fertilizers, and engagement in direct sales for reducing the environmental impacts and costs of agricultural products and thus advancing sustainable agriculture development.

Keywords: tea; climate change; sustainable agriculture; environmental impact; carbon footprint (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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