Carbon Footprints and Food Systems :Do Current Accounting Methodologies Disadvantage Developing Countries?

Brenton, Paul ; Edwards-Jones, Gareth ; Jensen, Michael Friis

World Bank

关键词: AGRICULTURAL EMISSIONS;    AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION;    AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS;    AIR;    AIRCRAFT EMISSIONS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/978-0-8213-8539-5
RP-ID  :  56798

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Carbon accounting and labeling are newinstruments of supply chain management and, in some cases,of regulation that may affect trade from developingcounties. These instruments are used to analyze and presentinformation on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from supplychains with the hope that they will help bring aboutreductions of GHGs. The designers of these schemes arecaught in a dilemma: on one hand they have to respond topolicy and corporate agendas to create new ways ofresponding to climate change challenges, while on the otherthey rely on very rudimentary knowledge about the actual GHGemissions emanating from the varied production systems thatoccur around the globe. This is because the underlyingscience of GHG emissions from agricultural systems is onlypartially developed; this is particularly true for supplychains that include activities in developing countries(Edwards-Jones et al., 2009). As a result of the pressuresplaced on designers and users of carbon accounting andlabeling instruments, who are predominantly based inindustrialized countries, there is a risk that carbonaccounting and labeling instruments will not adequatelyrepresent production systems in developing countries. Thisreport seeks to examine the potential for emerging carbonaccounting and labeling schemes to accurately represent theproduction systems in developing countries. In order toachieve this it includes analyses of typical problems thatmay occur if the characteristics of developingcountries' production systems are not taken intoaccount properly. By doing this, the report providesrelevant and necessary scientific data that illustratepotential problem areas that, if not addressed, may lead todeveloping-country carbon efficiencies not being givenproper credit.