World Bank, 2024

https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/406c71a3-c13f-49cd-8f3f-a071715858fb

Sutton, William R.; Lotsch, Alexander; Prasann, Ashesh. 2024. Recipe for a Livable Planet: Achieving Net Zero Emissions in the Agrifood System. Agriculture and Food Series. Conference Edition. © Washington, DC: World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/41468 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.

Covered and summarised by GFI here: https://gfi.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/World-Bank-report-summary.pdf

Key points

• The report examines 26 of the agrifood sector's most promising emissions mitigation interventions. Alternative proteins (APs), which refer to making meat from plants and cultivating it from cells, are ranked second for climate mitigation potential

• They call for more government funded research and point out that its what drove down the cost of solar panels and electric car batteries.

• APs have nine times more mitigation potential than the second most promising intervention to improve meat production (improved ruminant feed digestibility, at 680 MtCO2 eq/year). The potential from feed additives (e.g., algae) is 380 MtCO2 eq/year, and from improved ruminant productivity is 179 MtCO2 eq/year.

• Some of the cost can be paid for by shifting money away from wasteful subsidies, but substantial additional resources are needed to cover the rest. The costs are estimated at less than half the amount the world spends every year on agricultural subsidies, many of them wasteful and harmful for the environment

• High-income countries should decrease their own consumer demand for emissions-intensive, animal-source foods. They can influence consumption by ensuring that the environmental and health costs borne by society are fully included in food prices. These countries can also shift subsidies for red meat and dairy toward lower-emission foods, such as poultry or fruits and vegetables.

• One-third of the world’s opportunities to reduce agrifood emissions in a cost-effective way relate to land use in middle-income countries. Reducing the conversion of forests to croplands or pastures and promoting reforestation or agroforestry can bring big emissions cuts and store carbon in biomass and soils.

• Low-income countries should focus on green and competitive growth and avoid building the high-emissions nfrastructure that high-income countries must now replace.

Abstract

The global agrifood system has been largely overlooked in the fight against climate change. Yet, greenhouse gas emissions from the agrifood system are so big that they alone could cause the world to miss the goal of keeping global average temperatures from rising above 1.5 centigrade compared to preindustrial levels. Greenhouse gas emissions from agrifood must be cut to net zero by 2050 to achieve this goal. Recipe for a Livable Planet: Achieving Net Zero Emissions in the Agrifood System offers the first comprehensive global strategic framework to mitigate the agrifood system’s contributions to climate change, detailing affordable and readily available measures that can cut nearly a third of the world’s planet heating emissions while ensuring global food security. These actions, which are urgently needed, offer three additional benefits: improving food supply reliability, strengthening the global food system’s resilience to climate change, and safeguarding vulnerable populations. This practical guide outlines global actions and specific steps that countries at all income levels can take starting now, focusing on six key areas: investments, incentives, information, innovation, institutions, and inclusion. Calling for collaboration among governments, businesses, citizens, and international organizations, it maps a pathway to making agrifood a significant contributor to addressing climate change and healing the planet.