Making Globalization and Trade Work for People and Planet: International Spillovers Embodied in EU's Food Supply Chains
In collaboration with the University of Sydney and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the SDSN held a webinar to highlight the recent launch of a report on International spillovers embodied in EU’s food supply chains.
On 17 March 2022, the SDSN hosted a webinar to highlight the launch of a new study, “Making globalization and trade work for people and planet: International spillovers embodied in EU’s food supply chains ,” produced by SDSN in collaboration with our partners at the University of Sydney’s IELab and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
Drawing on the latest advances in industrial ecology and in collaboration with the University of Sydney’s IELab, this report takes a deep dive into the environmental impacts generated through the EU’s food supply chains. The EU is the third largest importer of food products in the world. In this study, we quantify emissions (carbon dioxide, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide), land use, employment, and income-related impacts embodied in the EU's demand for agri-food products. We trace these environmental and social impacts across EU’s trading partners to identify specific sectors and regions as hotspots of international spillovers embodied in the EU’s food supply chains, and find that these hotspots are wide-ranging in all continents.
Understanding international spillovers embodied in trade and consumption is critical to the global sustainability agenda. Failing to account for spillover impacts – and addressing them through policy frameworks – undermines the ambitions of Agenda 2030, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the Paris Climate Change Agreement. Incorporating these metrics in the policy process will accelerate progress in sustainable agriculture in the EU – and elsewhere around the world.
This event brought together practitioners and experts to discuss the issue of international spillovers in the context of the EU’s food supply policies. The European Green Deal and “ Fit for 55 ” packages aim to make the EU the first carbon neutral continent in the world. Yet the EU's consumption of goods and services lead to environmental impacts elsewhere in the world, including greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, and social impacts, which need to be monitored and addressed. The event and discussions also acknowledged the importance of domestic policies and mechanisms, technical cooperation and diplomacy, and robust data and statistics to address trade-related international spillovers ahead of the 2022 High-Level Political Forum.
Opening remarks introduced the importance and relevance of spillovers within the EU’s policy agenda, with a statement by Dr. Ingolf Dietrich, Commissioner for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
Further context about the importance of sustainable food systems came from Guillaume Lafortune, Vice President and Head of the Paris Office of the SDSN.
Of primary importance is an acknowledgement that food systems constitute one of six major transformations necessary for achieving the SDGs, underpinning both the substance and the means of making progress toward international targets. The criticality of both spillovers and food systems ties into the broader work of the SDSN in breaking ground with a wide suite of partners to refine and strengthen the global conversation on sustainability.
Dr. Arunima Malik, Senior Lecturer in Sustainability at the University of Sydney, provided a more technical account of the methodology and results.
The report makes use of a powerful new tool developed by IELabat the University of Sydney. A custom-built Multi-Regional Input-Output table provides trade data and extensions on 164 countries across 97 economic sectors, allowing impacts to be traced through supply chains from producing countries to the countries of final consumption. The analysis also features fine-grained results on specific commodities and trade relationships.
The participants fielded questions from interested practitioners and sustainability professionals exploring the relevance of this new report in greater depth.
👉View the recording of the webinar on our Youtube channel here