Page 148 - Ecuador's Banana Sector under Climate Change

ecuador’s banana sector under climate change: an economic and biophysical assessment to promote a sustainable and climate-compatible strategy
Figure 46
Beef Cheese Butter Pork Eggs Tomatoes Poultry Rice Exotic fruit Milk Margerine Drupacee/grapes Cereales Pasta Bread Citrus Bananas Apples/Pears Potatoes
GHG emissions of selected food items (per kilo)
0 5 10 15 20 25
kg C02eq/t/Kg product
Source: Adapted from Berners-Lee and Hoolohan (2012)
level. Bananas are at the lower end of emissions per kilo, with approximately 1 kg of CO2e/kg. Berners-Lee (2010) wished to address the erroneous but, nevertheless, common assumption that imported produce leaves a significant carbon footprint. This may be so, but it is not in the case of the banana. This underscores the value of conveying information to consumers with regard to GHG emissions.45
Figure 47 ranks the same set of food products in terms of kilos of CO2e per US dollar of retail purchase. Bananas represent approximately one kg CO2e/USD, ranking slightly higher by way of this measure than by way of emissions per kilo. This is due to their being relatively inexpensive per kilo, compared to citrus, stone fruit, grapes or exotic fruits.
In terms of the entire range of food products, bananas would represent a tax rate that is much lower than the average. For instance, the tax rate for most animal products is at least three times higher than for bananas. An emission tax would, therefore, encourage consumers to shift away from relatively high-taxed beef, pork and dairy products and lead them to favour cereals, fruits, roots and tubers, which have a lower tax rate.
With regard to all categories of consumer expenditures (Table 49), the average dollar in the United States of household expenditure has a carbon footprint
of 1.4 kg to CO2e (Grainger and Kolstad, 2010).46 The average United States
45 Both figures (per kg; per USD) are adapted from Berners-Lee and Hoolohan (2012). Weber and Matthews (2008) provide a similar analysis for food categories in the United States. Edwards-Jones et al. (2008) examine, empirically, whether local food is best; Brenton et al. (2009) explore the threat of carbon labelling to exports from less developed countries.
46 Grainger and Kolstad (2010) used expenditure data from the 2003 United States Consumer Expenditure Survey. This study is used in this analysis, since it examines most major GHG emissions, while many studies examine only CO2 emissions. For agricultural products, CO2 greatly understates GHG emissions owing to the use of fertilizers and the N2O and methane that are emitted by livestock. With regard to livestock and emissions, see FAO (2013).
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