Greenhouse Gas Emissions Driven by the Transportation of Goods Associated with French Consumption

Abstract

The transportation of goods plays a significant role in the overall greenhouse gas emissions from consumption. This study investigates the connections between French household consumption and production and transportation-related emissions throughout product supply chains. Here a two-region, environmentally extended input-output model is combined with a novel detailed, physical-unit transportation model to examine the connection between product, location of production, choice of transport mode, and greenhouse gas emissions. Total emissions associated with French household consumption are estimated to be 627 MtCO2e, or 11 tCO2e per capita. Of these, 3% are associated with the transportation of goods within France and 10% with transport of goods outside or into France. We find that most transport originating in northern Europe is by road, whereas most transport from other regions is conducted by sea and ocean transport. Rail, inland water, and air transportation play only a minor role in terms of mass, tonne-kilometers, and greenhouse gas emissions. By product, transport of coal and coke and intermediate goods make the largest contribution to overall freight transport emissions associated with French household consumption. In terms of mass, most goods are transported by road while in terms of tonne-kilometers, sea and ocean transport plays the largest role. Road transport contributes the highest share to the transport of all goods with the exceptions of coal and coke and petroleum. We examine the potential for emissions reductions associated with shifting 10% of direct imports by air freight to sea and ocean or road transport and find that the potential reductions are less than 0.03% of total emissions associated with French consumption. We also consider shifting 10% of direct imports by road transport to rail or inland water and find potential reductions on the order of 0.4−0.5% of the total or 3−4% of the freight transport emissions associated with French consumption. The greatest reductions are achieved by shifting from road transport to rail or inland water for direct imports from northern European countries. This suggests a potential environmental benefit associated with improving rail and inland water infrastructures in Europe.

Household carbon emission research: an analytical review of measurement, influencing factors and mitigation prospects

“…They claim that the primary advantage of IOM is that it provides a standard method of analysis that can be updated or applied to different populations in a uniform manner. Several subsequent papers employ this technique in calculating the carbon emissions of particular products or services in countries such as France (Hawkins and Dente, 2010) and Norway (Larsen and Hertwich, 2011). Based on this original model, other developed models include the United Kingdom Quasi-Multi-Regional InputeOutput (QMRIO) models Jackson, 2009, 2010) and the Norwegian Environmentally Expanded InputeOutput models (Larsen and Hertwich, 2011) to widen the scope.…”

Contrasted greenhouse gas emissions from local versus long-range tomato production

“…Weber and Matthews (2008) and Hawkins and Dente (2010) found that, in general, carbon emissions from transporting agricultural products represent 0.5 % of total greenhouse gas emissions. This number correlates to the results of system 1.…”

Food miles, carbon footprint and global value chains for Spanish agriculture: assessing the impact of a carbon border tax

“…Changes towards a healthier diet, decreasing the intake of meat and dairy, and increasing vegetables, fruits and cereals (Weber and Matthews, 2008;Cazcarro et al, 2012), local sources of food (Weber and Matthews, 2008;Hawkins and Dente, 2010), seasonal fruit and vegetable products, homemade, publicly catered and ready-to-eat dishes (Virtanen, 2011) or less elaborated food products, have an effect on generated greenhouse gases. However, the articles quoted above have conducted limited analysis of the agricultural sector despite using LCA-IO models.…”

“…Increases in carbon footprints are also due to a growing number of goods traveling thousands of kilometers for final consumption or as inputs in several production processes along the way (Cadarso et al, 2010;Cristea et al, 2013 andVöhringer et al, 2013). Agricultural products are experiencing the same phenomenon, as conveyed in the concept of foodmiles by domestic (Nealer et al, 2012) and international agricultural products (Weber and Matthews, 2008 1 ;Hawkins and Dente, 2010). Through the concept of food-miles, emissions linked to food production processes and emissions from food long-distance transportation and distribution are calculated and compared and the last ones represent around 15% of the first (Weber and Matthews, 2008).…”

“…Cansino et al (2012) found that agriculture was among the main sectors by volume of emissions in a domestic input-output model analysis for 2002-2007, and emissions for the sector have grown through the period both in absolute terms and relative to production, pointing out to the need to introduce technological improvements in this sector. Agriculture is also Dente (2010), a biregional model for France and the rest of the world; and Nealer et al (2011Nealer et al ( , 2012), a uniregional model for the US. Recently, Cristea et al (2013) and Vöhringer et al (2013), used a MRIO to analyze the importance of transport in global emissions of the world, but they do not focus on agriculture.…”