Scientists have discovered that increasing efficiency in the food system can effectively support China's carbon neutrality

Technology Frontiers Guangming Daily, July 15, Beijing (reporter Jin Haotian)The Dai Hancheng research group and collaborators of the School of Environmental Science and Engineering at Peking University have recently found that increasing efficiency in the food system can effectively support China's achievement of the 2060 carbon neutrality target. Biomass energy is an important alternative means for China to achieve carbon neutrality, and China needs to combine various measures such as moderately relaxing food trade, increasing crop yield, reducing food waste, and shifting towards a healthy diet to build an efficient food system that is in line with its national conditions

Technology Frontiers

Guangming Daily, July 15, Beijing (reporter Jin Haotian)The Dai Hancheng research group and collaborators of the School of Environmental Science and Engineering at Peking University have recently found that increasing efficiency in the food system can effectively support China's achievement of the 2060 carbon neutrality target. Biomass energy is an important alternative means for China to achieve carbon neutrality, and China needs to combine various measures such as moderately relaxing food trade, increasing crop yield, reducing food waste, and shifting towards a healthy diet to build an efficient food system that is in line with its national conditions. Only then can we significantly increase the potential for negative carbon dioxide emissions while ensuring food security, and achieve China's carbon neutrality goal and global sustainable development.

In response to climate change, energy crops may be planted on a large scale globally, leading to multidimensional sustainability issues related to land, such as food security, water resource shortages, greenhouse gas surges, and biodiversity reduction. Therefore, the current urgent scientific issue is how to provide large-scale biomass energy while ensuring China's food security and not increasing the environmental burden on food trading partners Dai Hancheng said that biomass energy+carbon capture and storage technology (BECCS) plays a vital role in achieving the Paris Agreement climate mitigation goal.

Research has speculated that assuming the large-scale deployment of BECCS in China by 2060, it will generate a total negative emission potential of about 1.3 billion tons in the agricultural, forestry, and land use sectors, which can greatly alleviate the carbon emission reduction pressure and cost of other national economic sectors, and have huge social and economic benefits. But at the same time, the problems brought about by the large-scale cultivation of energy crops cannot be ignored. In order to solve these secondary problems, while China's energy system is low-carbon, the food system also needs to be efficient.

Based on the comprehensive evaluation model of Energy Environment Economic Sustainable Development Global Biosphere Management (IMED-GLOBIOM) independently constructed by Peking University, researchers found through simulation and analysis that in order to eliminate the pressure of biomass energy expansion on China's food security and the transfer of cross-border environmental burden, multiple sustainability measures need to be combined, including appropriately reducing the self-sufficiency rate of main grains and relaxing food trade, gradually reducing food loss and waste To achieve the triple goals of carbon neutrality, food security, and global sustainable development, we must shift towards a healthy diet, reasonably increase crop yield, and promote the quality and efficiency of food production and consumption systems.

In addition, the efficient food system proposed in the study can also reduce various pressures on agricultural land, water, and fertilizer use. This study introduces regional differences parameters that are in line with China's actual situation in the comprehensive evaluation model, effectively filling the gaps in existing relevant research. At the same time, the study also focused on the issue of inter regional environmental burden transfer implicit in food trade, building a two-way bridge between global comprehensive assessment and national research, and proposing ways to achieve the synergistic relationship between emission reduction goals and sustainable development.

This will provide theoretical support and forward-looking insights for coordinating multi-dimensional policies such as biomass energy negative emission technology layout, food security supply, and global food trade cooperation to achieve carbon neutrality, "said Dai Hancheng.

Guangming Daily (July 16, 2023, 4th Edition)

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