This report (Southerton D, McMeekin A and Evans D (2011). International review of behaviour change initiatives: Climate change behaviours research programme, Scottish Government) commissioned by the Scottish Government, reviews a range of behaviour change initiatives that have attempted to reduce the carbon intensity of consumption practices. It aims to enhance understandings of the different combinations of mechanisms for behavioural change, and to explore the potential transferability of initiatives to other regional, specifically Scottish, contexts.

This paper shows that the benefits for net carbon uptake by the biosphere arising from nitrogen fertilisation are offset by the emissions of nitrous oxide that result (Zaehle S, Ciais P, Friend A D and Prieur V (2011). Carbon benefits of anthropogenic reactive nitrogen offset by nitrous oxide emissions, Nature Geoscience)., doi:10.1038/ngeo1207). 

 This paper, the authors of which include several FCRN mailing list members, examines 'Protein efficiency per unit energy and per unit greenhouse gas emissions: Potential contribution of diet choices to climate change mitigation'. (González A D, Frostell B and Carlsson-Kanyama A (2011) Protein efficiency per unit energy and per unit greenhouse gas emissions: Potential contribution of diet choices to climate change mitigation, Food Policy doi:10.1016/j.foodpol.2011.07.003). Reference, abstract and conclusions copied as follows:

If you only read one report highlighted in this section – read this.  It’s a study commissioned by the Committee on Climate Change as supporting research for the publication of its latest Annual Report and is a really fascinating piece of work.  

The shipping industry has become the first global business sector to agree to mandatory carbon dioxide emissions reductions. At a meeting of the United Nations' International Maritime Organization, member countries agreed to set CO2 emissions standards on new ships beginning in 2019, with the goal of improving energy efficiency by 30% by 2024.

The National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) is a continuous cross-sectional survey, designed to assess the diet, nutrient intake and nutritional status of the general population aged 18 months upwards living in private households in the UK.The findings show that the overall picture of the diet and nutrition of the UK population is broadly similar to previous surveys in the NDNS series and no new nutritional problems appear to have emerged.

 In partnership with Making Local Food Work, Co-operative UK’s has launched a suite of financial, legal and governance resources for community enterprisesCo-operatives UK, the trade association for co-operative enterprises, has developed the resources with experts as part of the Making Local Food Work programme, a £10m project funded by the Big Lottery Fund that supports community food enterprises across England.The suite of resources, available both online and as hard copies, is free to use and includes:

The US based non profit organisation Environmental Working Group has published its report entitled  Meat Eater’s Guide to Climate Change and Health. The report was undertaken for EWG by the Life Cycle Analysis consultancy CleanMetrics (See outbound link).