The technical mitigation potential of demand-side measures in the agri-food sector: a preliminary assessment of available measures

A number of studies have suggested that addressing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agricultural production, or ‘supply-side emissions’, will be insufficient to reduce agri-food sector GHG emissions to limit the increase of global temperatures to well below 2o C. Recent studies have also suggested that ‘demandside measures’ related to food consumption, food value chains, and food loss and waste, will be necessary to reduce emissions and may have a larger technical mitigation potential than supply-side measures. This report assesses the availability of demand-side policies and measures, and looks at evidence of these measures’ impacts on behavior that directly results in emissions from the agri-food sector. Often discussed demand-side measures include ‘soft’ measures (e.g. health promotion initiatives, product labeling) and ‘hard’ measures (e.g. consumption taxes or subsidies). We review here the effectiveness of these measures for dietary change and reductions in food loss and waste, with a focus on developing countries, where agrifood emissions are projected to grow most rapidly and where the gaps in knowledge are largest. This report is linked to CCAFS Info Note "Shifting food consumption to mitigate climate change is critical to fulfilling the Paris Agreement, but how?" https://cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/handle/10568/77145/Info note Demand side mitigation Aug 22 2016.pdf