Closer collaboration between governments, businesses, and scientists is needed to improve the situation.
By Eric Ng
News Editor, Climate
South China Post
International efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the food sector are falling well below what is required for the world to achieve its climate goals, according to the head of a global environmental organisation.
Closer collaboration between governments, businesses and scientists is needed to improve the situation, said Jennifer Morris, CEO of The Nature Conservancy (TNC), in an interview.
She said there was an under-appreciation of the significance of the agriculture and food production industries’ contribution to the release of gases that cause global warming and climate change, especially carbon dioxide and methane.
“We’ve forgotten that 30 per cent of our annual emissions was coming from food production, so [even] if we went 100 per cent renewable energy tomorrow, without transforming agriculture we’ll never achieve our Paris Agreement targets,” said Morris.
TNC, which is based in Virginia in the US, has projects in over 70 nations.