This blog-post from Martin Persson at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden takes on the timely question of how one should measure the climate impacts of different greenhouse gases.  He begins by explaining what the two most common metrics - Global Warming Potential (GWP) and the Global Temperature change Potential (GTP) – actually measure.  He then moves on to focus specifically on beef and associated methane emissions. In light of the Paris Agreement’s target of limiting warming to 2oC he argues that the ‘right’ metric to choose needs to reflect the specific climate policy that the measurement is to serve.Martin Persson is an Associate Professor at Physical Resource Theory, Department of Energy & Environment at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. In addition to metrics, his research focuses on global land use in relation to climate, biodiversity, and conservation policy. In a recent paper he and his colleagues show that the consumption and international trade of beef, soy, palm oil and timber products are dominant causes of deforestation in the tropics.

In this piece, FCRN member Neil Chalmers discusses a recent paper he co-authored with Matthew Brander (University of Edinburgh Business School) and Cesar Revoredo-Giha (Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) published in The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment.Neil is studying a PhD titled “Demand for low carbon food products” at the University of Edinburgh. Neil was educated at the University of Stirling where he received a BA (Hons) in Economics. He then moved to Denmark and received an MSc in Agricultural Economics from the University of Copenhagen. His main interests are the economics of consumer behaviour and carbon policy and modelling the likely effects of agricultural and environmental policy. Neil has also completed an internship with the Scottish Agricultural College focusing on modelling policy implications for Scotland.