All data for 2023.
Total GHG Emissions for India (CO2eq): 3.4 billion tons.
Total Food, Beverages & Dairy Industry Emissions:
- Total emissions: 60 million tons (CO2eq) (Scope 1 & 2)
- Proportion of total GHG emissions: approx 1.7% (Scope 1 & 2)
- Total emissions scope 3 = 390 million tons or 11.5% of total GHG
- So, for all scope, the total emissions would be about 450 million tons, and about 13.2% of GHG emissions
Hope this is useful.
If you have queries on this, please send a note to narsi@eai.in and I will try my best to help! – Narsi, EAI
Support data and other highlights
The ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute has done research on carbon footprints of Indian food items. Their results have shown that animal food products (meat and milk) and rice cultivation mostly contributed to methane(CH4) emission, while food products from crops contributed to emission of nitrous oxide(N2O). For a balanced diet (vegetarian), an adult Indian man consumed 1.16 kg of food and emitted 0.72 kg CO2 eq. GHG per day. For a woman, the emission was 20% lower. Emissions of GHGs were 13% more for a nonvegetarian meal. A non-vegetarian meal with mutton emitted GHGs 1.8 times of a vegetarian meal, 1.5 times of a non-vegetarian meal with chicken and an ovo-vegetarian meal, and 1.4 times a lacto-vegetarian meal. (Source: Ministry of Environment).
30% of India’s population is vegetarian; 48%, women. So, it we take the above stats, emissions from (using 1.4 billion as total Indian population):
Vegetarian Men – 0.72 (Kg of CO2)*0.3 (proportion vegetarian)*0.52 (men)*1400000000*365/(1000*1000000) = 57 million tons CO2
Vegetarian Women – 0.72 (Kg of CO2)*0.8 (20% lower for women)*0.3 (proportion vegetarian)*0.48 (men)*1400000000*365/(1000*1000000) = 42 million tons CO2
Non-Vegetarian Men – 0.72 (Kg of CO2)*1.5*0.7 (proportion non-vegetarian)*0.52 (men)*1400000000*365/(1000*1000000) = 200 million tons CO2
Non-Vegetarian Women – 0.72 (Kg of CO2)*1.5*0.8*0.7 (proportion non-vegetarian)*0.48 (men)*1400000000*365/(1000*1000000) = 150 million tons CO2
So, the total from the above = approx 450 million tons
Now, this is the total LCA carbon footprint for the food consumed. Of this, only about 13% is from production, processing and transport, so that’s 13%*450/3400, which is about 1.7%
