A comprehensive top-down method to determine food chain emissions in European Economic Area countries

Food, beverage and tobacco manufacturing accounted for 18 % of the sales value in the EU in 2023, higher than any other individual sector. Food cold chains are energy intensive and often use refrigerants with high global warming potential. Existing databases provide an overview of food-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but lack the detail needed to assess country-specific differences in energy sources and food production systems, limiting tailored mitigation efforts. This paper provides an objective method to estimate all GHG emissions related to the EU food chain, from farming/fishing to human consumption. Ten European countries were selected which represented the EU27 plus Norway and their Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions were analysed. Scope 1 emissions from HFCs (fugitive emissions) were also presented separately. The food share emissions as a proportion of total GHG emissions vary from 10 to 24 % for the different countries. Scope 1 emissions accounted for 84 % of food-related GHG emissions, 5 % of these emissions were from HFCs. Scope 2 emissions were very dependent on the electrical carbon grid emission intensity of a country which varied from 0.018 kg/kWh to 0.776 kg/kWh for the countries in this study. Emissions calculated from the different parts of the food supply chain showed varying contributions from Scope 1 and 2. The agriculture and fishing sector was responsible for 58 % of the emissions of the whole food chain. However, the majority of this comes from CH 4 , and N 2 O, not CO 2 . The storage sector contributed minimally, accounting for only 0.4 % of all food GHG emissions. HFC emissions account for 50 % of retail emissions. In conclusion, this top-down method provides reliable results for comparing countries and sectors and can be extended to other countries with minor modifications. • Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions from 9 EU countries plus Norway are presented. • Food share emissions as a proportion of total GHG emissions varied from 10 to 24 %. • Scope 1 emissions accounted for 84 % of food-related GHG emissions. • 5 % of Scope 1 emissions were from HFCs. • The agriculture and fishing sector was responsible for 58 % of the total emissions.