Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Food Consumption in Germany

On behalf of the think tank Agora Agrar, corsus has modelled and quantified the nutrition-related greenhouse gas emissions.

The methodological foundation is provided by the ISO 14040/44, an international standard for conducting life cycle assessments. The assessment focused exclusively on the Global Warming Potential (GWP), which represents the effect caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and is referred to as the greenhouse effect. Greenhouse gas emissions are calculated for over a 100-year period (GWP100 – Global Warming Potential, 100 years), including emissions from land use and direct land use change. Emissions deriving from the indirect land use change are not considered due to the unreliable nature of available data and remaining methodological questions.

The methodology builds upon the established approach used in numerous studies on this subject.¹ The baseline for assessing nutrition-related climate impacts in Germany is the average annual food consumption per person, also understood as a food basket. It comprises the various food items consumed on average over the course of one year. Food consumption encompasses all food products consumed by end-consumers, i.e. all food that is eaten or disposed of. Based on the food items in the food basket, material flows were traced back to their origins, all the way to the agricultural production. Unlike previous studies, the basket of all consumed food products included beverages.

The results show that food consumption in Germany generates approximately 235 million tonnes of CO₂-equivalents annually, spanning from agricultural production to private households. Approximately two-thirds of food-related greenhouse gas emissions are caused by animal products, and one-third by plant-based foods. Among beverages, beer, soft-drinks, and coffee account for the largest share of emissions.