Opportunities for a low-emission transformation of African food systems
Food systems – spanning agriculture, land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF), energy, industrial processes and product use (IPPU), and waste – account for about one-third of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, yet they remain difficult to identify in national reporting because the...
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| Format: | Artículo preliminar |
| Language: | Inglés |
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CIFOR-ICRAF
2026
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/180054 |
| _version_ | 1855525109094154240 |
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| author | Pingault, N. Martius, C. |
| author_browse | Martius, C. Pingault, N. |
| author_facet | Pingault, N. Martius, C. |
| author_sort | Pingault, N. |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Food systems – spanning agriculture, land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF), energy, industrial processes and product use (IPPU), and waste – account for about one-third of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, yet they remain difficult to identify in national reporting because they are dispersed across UNFCCC sectors. This working paper provides a continent-wide overview of food security and diets, economy-wide emissions, and food system emissions in Africa, and identifies no-regret priorities for mitigation action that support food security and sustainable development. It combines FAOSTAT agrifood system emissions with national inventory estimates submitted to the UNFCCC as Common Reporting Tables, analysed through the updated FSE-CRT model, which aligns national sectoral reporting with food-system boundaries while enabling cross-country comparability. The analysis situates mitigation opportunities within Africa’s structural context of rapid demographic growth, persistent poverty and undernutrition, and fast urbanization, while recognizing that the continent has the world’s lowest per-capita emissions and therefore requires context-appropriate mitigation pathways. Across datasets, agriculture and waste emerge as priority sectors for mitigation when excluding LULUCF, with livestock management (enteric fermentation and manure) identified as a leading farm-gate source and unmanaged organic waste as a major urban emissions driver; by contrast, energy- and industry-related food emissions are smaller and often underreported in national inventories. The paper highlights quick-win options—such as improved livestock management, better nutrient-use efficiency, reduced food losses, and enhanced organic waste management—alongside second-tier priorities requiring longer-term investment, including sustainable land-use planning and forest protection, climate-smart intensification, low-carbon food-system infrastructure, and strengthened national GHG inventories to improve targeting and access to climate finance. |
| format | Artículo preliminar |
| id | CGSpace180054 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | CIFOR-ICRAF |
| publisherStr | CIFOR-ICRAF |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1800542026-01-21T09:08:50Z Opportunities for a low-emission transformation of African food systems Pingault, N. Martius, C. food systems climate smart agriculture Food systems – spanning agriculture, land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF), energy, industrial processes and product use (IPPU), and waste – account for about one-third of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, yet they remain difficult to identify in national reporting because they are dispersed across UNFCCC sectors. This working paper provides a continent-wide overview of food security and diets, economy-wide emissions, and food system emissions in Africa, and identifies no-regret priorities for mitigation action that support food security and sustainable development. It combines FAOSTAT agrifood system emissions with national inventory estimates submitted to the UNFCCC as Common Reporting Tables, analysed through the updated FSE-CRT model, which aligns national sectoral reporting with food-system boundaries while enabling cross-country comparability. The analysis situates mitigation opportunities within Africa’s structural context of rapid demographic growth, persistent poverty and undernutrition, and fast urbanization, while recognizing that the continent has the world’s lowest per-capita emissions and therefore requires context-appropriate mitigation pathways. Across datasets, agriculture and waste emerge as priority sectors for mitigation when excluding LULUCF, with livestock management (enteric fermentation and manure) identified as a leading farm-gate source and unmanaged organic waste as a major urban emissions driver; by contrast, energy- and industry-related food emissions are smaller and often underreported in national inventories. The paper highlights quick-win options—such as improved livestock management, better nutrient-use efficiency, reduced food losses, and enhanced organic waste management—alongside second-tier priorities requiring longer-term investment, including sustainable land-use planning and forest protection, climate-smart intensification, low-carbon food-system infrastructure, and strengthened national GHG inventories to improve targeting and access to climate finance. 2026-01-20 2026-01-18T23:18:57Z 2026-01-18T23:18:57Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/180054 en Open Access CIFOR-ICRAF Pingault N and Martius C. 2026. Opportunities for a low-emission transformation of African food systems. Working Paper 66. Bogor, Indonesia: CIFOR; Nairobi, Kenya: ICRAF. |
| spellingShingle | food systems climate smart agriculture Pingault, N. Martius, C. Opportunities for a low-emission transformation of African food systems |
| title | Opportunities for a low-emission transformation of African food systems |
| title_full | Opportunities for a low-emission transformation of African food systems |
| title_fullStr | Opportunities for a low-emission transformation of African food systems |
| title_full_unstemmed | Opportunities for a low-emission transformation of African food systems |
| title_short | Opportunities for a low-emission transformation of African food systems |
| title_sort | opportunities for a low emission transformation of african food systems |
| topic | food systems climate smart agriculture |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/180054 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT pingaultn opportunitiesforalowemissiontransformationofafricanfoodsystems AT martiusc opportunitiesforalowemissiontransformationofafricanfoodsystems |