Can Food Be Carbon Neutral?

September 3, 2022

 

Can Food Be Carbon Neutral?

 

This week saw a dip in the European carbon price and also some big investments in the sector.

A novel green steel tech got the bulk of the investment, while a carbon-neutral food company also took its generous share from some celebrities & athletes.

Plus, planned carbon capture projects were reported to be ~1 billion yearly capacity in tonnes.

But when any sector begins to see rapid growth, it draws the attention of investors and the occasional scammer.

 

Carbon Scam

Falling prey to a carbon credit scam can be devastating. So it’s vital to know how to avoid scammers.

A couple in Taiwan were recently convicted, fined, and sentenced to prison terms for a $3.3 million carbon credit trading scam.

Investors are turning to simple checklists to help avoid being taken advantage of.

 

Stars Fund Neutral Foods

With Bill Gates’s money and support from LeBron James and Mark Cuban, Neutral Foods secured $12 million.

The company partners with dairy farmers to offset emissions and produce carbon-neutral dairy products.

It’s all part of the growing focus on carbon-friendly agriculture.

 

Greening Steel Production

Sweden’s H2 Green Steel intends to replace dirty coal and develop an environmentally friendly steel-making process. The result would be low-carbon steel, with reductions of nearly 90% over traditional methods.

Steelmaking traditionally relies on coal, in particular an emissions-heavy variant known as coke.

Upgrading the steelmaking process to something more environmentally friendly could have a huge impact; right now, an average of 1.8 tonnes of CO2e is produced for every tonne of steel.

 

The $1B Carbon Capture Pipeline

According to Wood Mackenzie, the planned carbon capture, usage, and storage (CCUS) project pipeline is now almost at 1 billion tonnes a year.

And that is not nearly enough, for the world to achieve net zero goals by 2050 it will require an additional 7x boost.

Currently, the global CCUS pipeline is 14x the amount of the current CCUS capacity at 63 million tonnes per year (Mtpa).

Carbon Fact of the Week

Agriculture is a major part of the climate problem, currently generating 19% to 29% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. 

Additionally, ⅓ of food produced globally is either lost or wasted. 

In the US, EPA estimated that each year, food loss and waste represents 170 million metric tons of CO2e GHG emissions, excluding landfill emissions.

This equals the annual CO2 emissions of 42 coal-fired power plants. 

Source: https://carboncredits.com/