Carbon governance from a systems perspective: an investigation of food production and consumption in the UK

Panel: Panel 1: The foundations of a future energy policy. Longer term strategies

Author:
Rebecca White , Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University Centre for the Environment, United Kingdom

Abstract

This paper provides a critical analysis of the UK’s current carbon and energy governance structure as applied to the food production and consumption system. A central tenet of UK climate change policy is the regulation of carbon through taxes as well as a cap and trade scheme. This conceptualises the economy as comprising mutually exclusive units of resource consumption (buildings, transport, industry, agriculture, etc.) such that different sectors are treated separately and each company has a site based responsibility to reduce its emissions. However, the reality is that the production of goods and services takes place across highly interconnected systems. Relationships between members of the system are primarily economic, but are mediated by influences such as policy and power. These relationships are not fully accounted for within current systems of carbon regulation. This paper explores the implications of this for systemic change to a low carbon economy. It is argued that this systems-based approach could be fruitful in gaining a better understanding of the issues involved in this transition.

The UK’s food system is used as a case study to which these ideas can be applied and interrogated. Food is responsible for about a fifth of a ‘developed’ country’s greenhouse gas emissions (mostly carbon dioxide through fossil energy use, but also methane and nitrous oxides from agriculture) and is currently regulated under the Climate Change Levy and Agreements and the EUETS. Additionally the diverse array of relationships between system members of different size, situation and influence, make it an ideal candidate through which to explore these ideas.