ReDUCE- Refining consumption-based estimates of Deforestation land-Use Change Emissions

Research Project, 2022 – 2024

The project aims to provide both private and public decision-makers with better data on greenhouse gas emissions from land-use change, including tropical deforestation, resulting from our imports of agricultural commodities. More accurate and actionable data on the deforestation carbon footprint of our consumption can help forge more effective policy responses and rid global supply-chains of embodied deforestation, in line with both private sector commitments and public sector goals.

Through the conversion of tropical forests and other natural ecosystems to cropland and pastures, food systems are a major driver of climate change and the loss of biodiversity and other ecosystem
services. With unprecedented attention in recent years on curbing tropical deforestation—with burgeoning commitments from companies, financial institutions and governments—there is an urgent need for accurate and actionable data on the role of global supply-chains in driving deforestation.
This project aims to provide private and public decision-makers with such data. It will build on the only model that currently provides comprehensive data on recent deforestation embodied in the
production, trade and consumption of agricultural commodities. The model will be refined by compiling sub-national data on agricultural land use and production. This will improve the attribution of deforestation to commodities and allow us to calculate life-cycle inventory data on deforestation carbon footprints with a higher spatial resolution. The sub-national data will also be used to provide improved estimates of the greenhouse gas emissions from peatland drainage.
Combining these data with global trade models will allow us to estimate consumption-based land-use change emissions with higher granularity, thus providing both private and public food system
actors with data that facilitates an understanding of the potential for reducing emissions, e.g., by changing product or geographical sourcing.