Viticulture Carbon Footprint in Desert Areas of the Global South: A Cabernet Sauvignon Case of Ningxia, China

Li Li, Yang Liu, Liqin Zhang, Jianjun Li, Tingning Wang and Qizheng Han ()
Additional contact information
Li Li: College of Humanities and Development Studies, College of International Development and Global Agriculture, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
Yang Liu: Ningxia Clean Development Mechanism Environmental Protection Service Center, Yinchuan 750001, China
Liqin Zhang: Ningxia Clean Development Mechanism Environmental Protection Service Center, Yinchuan 750001, China
Jianjun Li: Ningxia Clean Development Mechanism Environmental Protection Service Center, Yinchuan 750001, China
Tingning Wang: Ningxia Clean Development Mechanism Environmental Protection Service Center, Yinchuan 750001, China
Qizheng Han: Yantai Institute, China Agricultural University (CAU), Yantai 264670, China

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 17, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Background: The wine industry in arid area serves as a crucial livelihood source at the frontiers of anti-desertification and anti-poverty. By making use of a carbon footprint (CF) management system, formerly untapped climate values can be explored, embedded, and cherished to connect rural communities with the global goals of sustainable development. However, the current standards of CF management mainly represent the traditional wine grape growing areas of Europe, Oceania, and North America. Limited study of the arid areas in lower-income regions exists, which offers a kind of potential development knowledge regarding creating climate-related livelihoods. Methods: This paper attempts to construct a cradle-to-gate CF Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) framework based on the prominent emission factors in three GHG emission phases (raw material input, planting management, and transportation) of a wine grape variety, Cabernet Sauvignon ( chi xia zhu ), planted at the Eastern Foothills of the Helan Mountains in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of China. Results: It is found that viticulture processes (instead of wine-making, bottling, or distribution) account for a larger proportion of GHG emissions in Ningxia. Due to the large amount of irrigation electricity usage, the less precipitation wine producers have, the larger CF they produce. By using organic fertilizer, the CF of Ningxia Cabernet Sauvignon, being 0.3403 kgCO 2 e/kg, is not only lower than that of the drier areas in Gansu Province (1.59–5.7 kgCO 2 e/kg) of Western China, but it is even lower than that of the Israel Negev Region (0.342 kgCO 2 e/kg) that experiences more rainfall. Conclusions: The measurement of CF also plays a role in understanding low-carbon experience sharing. As the largest wine grape production area in China, CF analysis of the Ningxia region and its commercial value realization might practically fill in the knowledge gap for desert areas in developing countries. It is inspiring to know that by applying green agricultural technologies, the viticulture CF can be effectively reduced. For the potential exchanges in global carbon markets or trading regulations under the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), positive variations in CF and soil organic carbon (SOC) storage volume need to be considered within financial institutional design to lead to more participation toward SDGs.

Keywords: carbon footprint; wine grapes; viticulture; life cycle assessment; Ningxia; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/1/180/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/1/180/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2024:i:1:p:180-:d:1555945

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().