This paper looks at the alcohol we consume here in the UK. It considers whether we can quantify in ‘good enough’ terms the contribution that our alcohol consumption makes to the UK’s total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. 

This paper explores the contribution that our consumption of livestock products in the UK makes to greenhouse gases, the complexities associated with attempts at quantifying these impacts, the options for mitigation and the environmental and welfare challenges these options may present.

This paper looks at what this means in terms of refrigeration’s contribution to UK greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, at how this reliance on refrigeration has come about and what the consequences might be as regards future trends and associated emissions. It looks at how we might be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with food refrigeration both by improving the greenhouse gas efficiency of the equipment itself and, as a culture, by reducing our dependence on the cold chain.

This FCRN report sets out what we know about the food system’s contribution to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

In November 2009 the World Watch Institute released a report arguing that the FAO's estimate of livestock's total contribution to global GHG emissions (18%) is a serious underestimate and that the true footprint of livestock production is around 51% higher.

A life cycle comparison between processed ready meals and their home-made equivalent were published in a special edition of the journal Ambio (Ambio: A Journal of the Human Environment, vol. xxxiv number 4-5 June 2005). The conclusions are that there's not a lot to choose between the two. The home cooked meal used slightly less energy but generated slightly more GHG emissions (a result of different waste disposal assumptions).

The report, Wise Moves: exploring the relationship between food, transport and CO2, Tara Garnett, Transport 2000, 2003, considers the relationship between food miles and CO2 emissions within the supply chain, examining whether measures to shorten transport distance lead to greater or fewer CO2 emissions within the supply chain as a whole. Drawing upon a number of food studies, it concludes that the food chain is responsible for over 20% of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions.