Resource information
A number of studies have suggested that addressing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agricultural
production, or ‘supply-side emissions’, will be insufficient to reduce agri-food sector GHG emissions to limit
the increase of global temperatures to well below 2o
C. Recent studies have also suggested that ‘demandside
measures’ related to food consumption, food value chains, and food loss and waste, will be necessary
to reduce emissions and may have a larger technical mitigation potential than supply-side measures.
This report assesses the availability of demand-side policies and measures, and looks at evidence of these
measures’ impacts on behavior that directly results in emissions from the agri-food sector. Often discussed
demand-side measures include ‘soft’ measures (e.g. health promotion initiatives, product labeling) and
‘hard’ measures (e.g. consumption taxes or subsidies). We review here the effectiveness of these measures
for dietary change and reductions in food loss and waste, with a focus on developing countries, where agrifood
emissions are projected to grow most rapidly and where the gaps in knowledge are largest.
