Regionalised greenhouse gas emissions from food production in South-Eastern Australia

Agriculture is a significant source of greenhouse gases (GHG). Agriculture GHG emissions are often quantified at national or state level, with local-scale emissions not available to inform the state's regional policies and local government and community action to mitigate climate change. We present spatial inventories of GHG from food production for the state of New South Wales in Australia for methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and the sum of the two GHG in carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e). We used a top-down approach to disaggregate emis-sions from state level reported in the State and Territory Greenhouse Gas Inventories to emissions at local gov-ernment area level using publicly available agricultural census data. Our estimates showed that regional local government areas accounted for 18,522,010 t of CO2-e, 572,707 t of CH4 and 10,785 t of N2O emissions for food production, while metropolitan local government areas (Greater Sydney) accounted for 104,057 t of CO2-e, 2313 t of CH4 and 151 t of N2O emissions for food production. Livestock emissions dominated most regional local government areas, contributing on average (median) 14 times more emission than cropping emissions. Our study applies an approach for a transparent estimate of local-scale emissions consistent with the Australian National Inventory Reporting. To supplement the food production emissions inventory, a spatial food consumption-based inventory using emission factors derived by Hendrie et al. (2016) is presented to illus-trate the importance of engaging cities when addressing GHG emissions from food systems. Sources and spatial trends in food production-based and consumption-based emissions in New South Wales are addressed to guide policymakers and communities on opportunities to mitigate associated emissions to address climate goals.(c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Institution of Chemical Engineers. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

This study presents spatial inventories of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from food production in New South Wales, Australia, at the local government area level. Livestock emissions dominate most regional areas, and policy and community action at the local level can help mitigate these emissions.