Summary:

This report provides a comprehensive assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from China's agri-food system, covering agricultural production, food processing, packaging, transportation, retail, consumption, and waste disposal. It estimates that the agri-food system accounted for a significant share of China's total GHG emissions, with agricultural production contributing the largest portion. The analysis employs three scenarios—a reference scenario, an enhanced action scenario, and a deep decarbonization scenario—to project long-term emissions trajectories. It finds that under business-as-usual conditions, emissions would continue to grow; under deep decarbonization, emissions would decline but still fail to achieve near-zero emissions over the projection period. The report identifies several priority mitigation actions, with the largest mitigation potential coming from cooking energy efficiency and electrification, followed closely by manure management and biogas recovery, and nitrogen fertilizer use reduction. It also finds that a substantial majority of the mitigation potential could be unlocked by enhancing existing green development actions.

Suggested citation:

Chen Meian, Hu Min, Yang Li, Ma Zhong, Zhu Tongxin. (2023). The Agri-Food System and Carbon Neutrality: An Analysis of China's Agriculture- and Food-Related Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Emission Reduction Pathways [Report]. Beijing: Institute for Global Decarbonization Progress (iGDP). November 2023.

License:

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0)