Technical University of Munich (TUM), Munich, Germany.
University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
Nat Commun. 2020 Dec 15;11(1):6117. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-19474-6.
Although the agricultural sector is globally a main emitter of greenhouse gases, thorough economic analysis of environmental and social externalities has not yet been conducted. Available research assessing agricultural external costs lacks a differentiation between farming systems and food categories. A method addressing this scientific gap is established in this paper and applied in the context of Germany. Using life-cycle assessment and meta-analytical approaches, we calculate the external climate costs of foodstuff. Results show that external greenhouse gas costs are highest for conventional and organic animal-based products (2.41€/kg product; 146% and 71% surcharge on producer price level), followed by conventional dairy products (0.24€/kg product; 91% surcharge) and lowest for organic plant-based products (0.02€/kg product; 6% surcharge). The large difference of relative external climate costs between food categories as well as the absolute external climate costs of the agricultural sector imply the urgency for policy measures that close the gap between current market prices and the true costs of food.
尽管农业部门是全球温室气体的主要排放源，但对环境和社会外部性的全面经济分析尚未进行。现有的评估农业外部成本的研究缺乏对农业系统和食品类别的区分。本文建立了一种解决这一科学空白的方法，并将其应用于德国的背景下。我们使用生命周期评估和荟萃分析方法，计算了食品的外部气候成本。结果表明，常规和有机动物源产品的外部温室气体成本最高（每公斤产品 2.41 欧元；比生产者价格水平高出 146%和 71%），其次是常规奶制品（每公斤产品 0.24 欧元；高出 91%），而有机植物源产品最低（每公斤产品 0.02 欧元；高出 6%）。食品类别的相对外部气候成本差异较大，以及农业部门的绝对外部气候成本意味着需要采取政策措施，缩小当前市场价格与食品真实成本之间的差距。
