Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Cold Chains in Agrifood Systems

Alessandro Flammini (), Hanif Adzmir, Richard Pattison, Kevin Karl, Yosr Allouche and Francesco Nicola Tubiello ()
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Alessandro Flammini: Food and Agriculture Organization, Statistics Division, 00153 Rome, Italy
Hanif Adzmir: Centre on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
Richard Pattison: CrossnoKaye, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, USA
Kevin Karl: Centre on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
Yosr Allouche: International Institute of Refrigeration, 75017 Paris, France
Francesco Nicola Tubiello: Food and Agriculture Organization, Statistics Division, 00153 Rome, Italy

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 21, 1-13

Abstract: Cold chains are essential components of agrifood system activities, from storage and food processing to transport, retail, and household consumption. We devise a comprehensive methodology, validated against established data, to estimate both direct (due to refrigerant use) and indirect (from energy use) greenhouse gas emissions from agrifood system cold chains, expanding previous approaches, which had focused on direct emissions only. We found that in 2022, world-total indirect emissions from energy use in cold chains were more than twice the direct component from refrigerants. This resulted in a new estimate of world-total GHG emissions from agrifood system cold chains of 1.32 Gt CO 2 eq in 2022, with significant growth over the past two decades (0.52 Gt CO 2 eq in 2000). Household consumption and food processing represented the most significant contributors to agrifood system emissions from cold chains, together representing in 2022 three-fourths of the total. These results align well with known global patterns of energy use in the refrigeration sector and highlight the importance of targeting cold chains within agrifood system with GHG emission mitigation actions.

Keywords: greenhouse gas emissions; cold chains; agrifood systems; F-gases; food refrigeration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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