Search

The practice of using climate metrics to estimate carbon dioxide equivalent emissions has long been subject to scientific discussion. One strand of this literature has analysed whether the choice of metric affects the relative cost-effectiveness of options for climate change abatement, but there has been little discussion on the effect of metric choices on cost-effective abatement of near-term climate forcers (NTCFs). These NTCFs are air pollutants primarily regulated by policies outside the climate policy arena and their estimated carbon dioxide equivalent emissions are not typically considered in the evaluation of cost-effective abatement. However, the attention to NTCFs as climate forcers has increased during the last decade. The objective of this paper is to identify whether the relative cost-effectiveness of different NTCF abatement options is robust to climate metric choices. We assess nine plausible NTCF abatement options available in Sweden (with negligible effect on long-lived GHG emissions) and evaluate the robustness of the ranking of these, according to their estimated cost-effectiveness. Different metric designs are considered as well as climate impact uncertainty of NTCFs, with corresponding uncertainty in metric values. The results indicate that the choice of metric has little effect on the ranking of the options according to their cost-effectiveness, with options affecting NOx indicated as an exception. This suggests that the choice of metric utilised when calculating cost-effectiveness of NTCF abatement options is likely to have minor effect on which NTCF abatement options should be targeted for policy interventions (if NOx emissions are not significantly affected). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine climate impact from diet across background and sociodemographic characteristics in a population-based cohort in northern Sweden.Design: A cross-sectional study within the Västerbotten Intervention Programme. Dietary data from a 64-item food frequency questionnaire collected during 1996-2016 were used. Energy-adjusted greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) for all participants, expressed as kg carbon dioxide equivalents/day and 4184 kJ (1000 kcal), were estimated using data from life cycle analyses. Differences in background and sociodemographic characteristics were examined between participants with low and high GHGE from diet, respectively. The variables evaluated were age, BMI, physical activity, marital status, level of education, smoking, and residence.Setting: Västerbotten county in northern Sweden.Participants: In total, 46 893 women and 45 766 men aged 29-65 years.Results: Differences in GHGE from diet were found across the majority of examined variables. The strongest associations were found between GHGE from diet and age, BMI, education, and residence (all P < 0·001), with the highest GHGE from diet found among women and men who were younger, had a higher BMI, higher educational level, and lived in urban areas.Conclusions: This study is one of the first to examine climate impact from diet across background and sociodemographic characteristics. The results show that climate impact from diet is associated with age, BMI, residence and educational level amongst men and women in Västerbotten, Sweden. These results define potential target populations where public health interventions addressing a move towards more climate-friendly food choices and reduced climate impact from diet could be most effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]