The report's aim is to identify opportunities that could give rise to a 20% reduction in the external costs associated with domestic food transportation by the food industry and the barriers to achieving such a reduction. The external costs are those not borne by the transport operator and are defined as the contribution to accidents, air quality, congestion, CO2 infrastructure (damage) and noise. The link to the study is here.

An FCRN summary of the report is available here.

Its position paper: Longer and heavier lorries (LHLs) and the environment discusses a range of potential impacts arising from longer heavier lorries including noise, congestion, wear and tear on road infrastructure, safety and CO2 emissions.

An FCRN summary is available here.

In September 2007 the Commission for Integrated Transport published its report, Transport and Climate Change.

At the same time they posted on the web several briefing papers that were written for the CfIT Clmate Change Working Group. This included one entitled CO2 Emissions from Freight Transport in the UK. This paper:

• reviews the available data on carbon emissions from freight transport
• provides estimates of emissions levels by different transport modes
• examines the trend in CO2 emissions for road and railfreight operations
• presents a framework for analysing the inter-relationship between economic growth and freight-related CO2 emissions
• assesses the opportunities for reducing these CO2 emissions
• constructs two scenarios for CO2 emissions from the freight transport sector in 2015
• identifies public policy measures likely to cut CO2 emissions from this sector
• discusses the likely cost-effectiveness of these carbon mitigation measures

Some reference is made to food distribution though most of the analysis relates to freight transport in general. This and all the other related CfIT papers published at the same time can be downloaded here.

An FCRN summary is available here.

Published by the Food Ethics Council in May 2008, Flying food is based on work with environment and development groups. The document sets out benchmarks for judging the credibility of supermarket attempts to reduce air freight emissions, including:

• Placing work on aviation in an overarching environmental strategy that focuses at least as much effort on bigger greenhouse gas hotspots than air freight (responsible for 0.3% of UK greenhouse gases), like meat and dairy production (accounting for 8%);
• Nurturing open and transparent partnerships for development, including supportive, long-term relationships with suppliers, especially in the poorest parts of the world;
• Avoiding ‘carbon hypocrisy’, where air freighted produce is replaced with more greenhouse gas-intensive substitutes, even if they have travelled fewer ‘food miles’;
• Tackling the aspects of air freight that are most widely agreed to be a problem, particularly by improved planning in order to increase flight efficiency and limit ‘emergency’ top-up, where air freight is used to fill unexpected gaps on the shelf.
• Actively supporting government intervention to reduce market barriers to sustainable behaviour, including ensuring that climate change emissions from aviation are included within UK reduction targets.

The Role of Air Cargo in California’s Agricultural Export Trade: A 2007 Update, published by the Center for Agricultural Business (CAB) analyses international air cargo transport trends and outlines several reasons to expect growth in California airborne agricultural exports. At the same time, authors of the report caution that rising fuel costs and world terrorism have the potential to ground some export flights.

California airborne food export trade was 24.5% higher in 2006 than it had been 10 years earlier, despite recent declines. In 2006 for example, 77.6 percent of California’s $60 million in fresh cherry exports traveled by air. Seeds for growing fruits, vegetables and flowers ranked at the top of the value list, with air exports totaling $114.3 million. Other important airborne exports in 2006 included wine (valued at $21.8 million), various food preparations ($41.6 million), purebred breeding animals ($38.3 million), and bovine semen ($18.5 million).

The principal destinations of California's airborne agricultural export trade are in the Far East, with Japan ranking as the single largest market over the last three years, the authors found. South Korea, China, and Taiwan are all currently number among the top ten overseas markets. The second and third largest customers are the United Kingdom and Australia. A more limited airborne agricultural export trade is conducted with Continental Europe and Latin America.

This report from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change and commissioned by Friends of the Earth, published in September 2007, finds that current proposals to include aviation in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme will have very little impact on aviation’s contribution to climate change. The report can be downloaded here.

Headline conclusions are:

• In order for aviation to play its part in keeping EU carbon dioxide below dangerous levels the EU must considerably strengthen the aviation ETS (Emissions Trading Scheme) proposal.
• Current and envisaged carbon dioxide permit prices of less than €50 per tonne will have little impact on the demand for flights – and hence will barely affect the rapid growth in aviation emissions.
• Even a much higher carbon price of €300 per tonne would only result in a moderate increase in ticket prices, and therefore only a moderate reduction in demand and emissions growth.
• The aviation ETS proposal will not provide sufficient incentives for the aviation industry to make the necessary efficiency improvements in order for the sector to be part of a low carbon EU future

Recommendations include:

• The EU ETS for aviation must be strengthened: actions include bringing aviation into the ETS earlier, by 2010 at the latest, using a 1990 baseline for measuring carbon dioxide from aviation. Also, carbon permits should be auctioned not allocated to airlines for free - in line with the ‘polluter pays’ principle and recommended in last year’s Stern report
• Efficiency improvements in aviation must happen more quickly than in the past.

Friends of the Earth backs Tyndall's recommendations and adds more of its own. These can be read here.

The press release is available here. An FCRN summary is available here.

Road freight and economic development

A fascinating study published in September 2007 looks at the apparent decoupling or road freight transport (measured in tonne-km) from economic growth (measured in GDP). The study is entitled The Decoupling of Road Freight Transport and Economic Growth Trends in the UK: An Exploratory Analysis by Professor Alan C. McKinnon of Heriot Watt University and is available here.

An FCRN summary is available here.

An FCRN summary is available here.

New research suggests that the impact of shipping on climate change has been seriously underestimated and that the industry is currently churning out greenhouse gases at nearly twice the rate of aviation (Daniel Howden writing in The Independent). Shipping, although traditionally thought of as environmentally friendly, is growing so fast that the pollution it creates is at least 50 per cent higher than previously thought. Maritime emissions are also set to leap by 75 per cent by 2020.

The International Maritime Organisation, the UN body set up to regulate shipping, has set up a working group due to report this year. Research seen by the group suggests previous calculations, which put the total at about 600 million tonnes per year, are signifi-cantly short. The true figure is set to be more than one billion tonnes, according to a confidential report produced for the IMO by Intertanko, the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners.

• ‘Shopping miles’ are increasing as an overall total of ‘Food Miles’ – 40% to 48%
• Between 1990 and 1992 67% of Britain’s could walk to the supermarket, but 86% choose to drive
• The average Britain travels a ‘needless’ 2.4 miles per week to get basics e.g. milk and bread from the supermarket
• London has an average of 1.1 supermarkets/ convenience stores per sq kilometre, yet 78% of Londoners claim that they drive to do their supermarket shop.

This study investigates the suggestion that localisation of food production leads to greater sustainability. It asks whether localisation of UK food production is actually possible - in other words on the land available could we grow all the food we need? It concludes that in theory we could, although this would involve considerable changes in the way we eat. As regards the energy implications of such a strategy, it concludes that the 'question cannot be answered without additional consideration of the trade offs between the UK and other countries in yields from equivalent crops and energy requirements for agricultural production.'

• Attitudes and experiences towards shopping
• How we get to the shops
• The development of retail in the UK
• Retail trends and their effects on transport
• Transport trends and their effect on retail