Climate criteria for food system policies: assessing impacts at the Norwegian, Nordic and EU27+ level

Abstract The food system plays a central role in global greenhouse gas emissions. Trade policies and procurement criteria aimed at different food system processes are important tools that could contribute to reducing such emissions. This paper uses an LCA based approach to map combined production-consumption emissions across food system stages and products linked both to consumption, production and export, thus broadening the scope and impact beyond traditional national production analyses. We find that around 70%–80% of the national (Norwegian), and regional (Nordics and EU27+ countries) level food system emissions are at the domestic level, and 20%–30% come from import products. The production stage and combined post-production stages are dominating emission stages. We then quantify the mitigation effect of single and combined trade policies and procurement criteria at the different geographic levels, emphasizing the benefits of regional collaboration. Finally, the LCA approach and criteria impacts are compared to alternative methodologies to assess uncertainties in the impact of various measures. Despite differences in absolute emissions, especially in the land-use-change and production stages, we find that: (1) regardless of methodology and baseline used, criteria aiming at consumption change and zero post-production emissions are most powerful, (2) combined criteria generally promote stronger mitigation effects than single criteria, and (3) procurement criteria and trade policies can make important contributions to both national and up-stream improvements in the food chain.