Comparative Hidden Costs of the Food System Economic Commission Current

The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the view of the University of Oxford, the Food System Economic Commission, the Norwegian Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI) and the World Resources Institute (WRI). [...] The CT food system pathway is set in the demographic and socio-economic trajectory of the IPCC Shared Socio-economic Pathway (SSP) 2, [32], from 2020 up to 2150 for the consideration of the future economic costs of long-term gases residing in the atmosphere and effects of lost habitat. [...] The calculated marginal damage costs respond to the economic and demographic conditions of the SSPs as well as food system changes [34, 35], and the difference in the total hidden costs described in the Results are a combination of changes in annual quantity and changes in the annual average marginal costs. [...] In this analysis, the hidden costs of the 2 scenarios FST and FST-SSP1 are compared to the hidden costs in the CT scenario to examine the reduction in GDP PPP damages from implementing the food system measures with and without the context of the rapid and “greener” development in SSP1. [...] This illustrates the basic mechanics of the calculation of the difference in total hidden costs between the scenarios – a combination of changes in food system impact quantities and changes in marginal costs due to development in the food system, environment conditions, and the wider economy.