LSE Sustainability Symposium: The Role of Behavioural Change Versus Systemic Change in Accelerating the Transition to a Net Zero Agri-Food Sector

Journal

LSE Public Policy Review

Author

Elizabeth J. Z. Robinson

Abstract

In many higher-income countries, efforts to reduce emissions in the agri-food sector, which accounts for around 30% of global emissions, have been less successful than in other sectors such as energy and transport, where technological change rather than behaviour change has played a central role in driving emissions reductions. This paper, in the context of insights from the behavioural sciences and economics literatures, explores policies that have been put in place in higher-income countries to reduce food waste and livestock emissions, two of the largest contributors to the sector’s emissions, where the potential for emissions reduction is considerable and conceptually simple to articulate, but in practice has proven to be tricky. The paper suggests that, particularly with respect to livestock emissions, where a reduction in meat consumption could have considerable negative repercussions across the supply chain, a shared vision of the future of food could help to accelerate the transition to net zero.

DOI: 10.31389/lseppr.174