cover image: Food and land system transformations under different societal perspectives on sustainable development

Food and land system transformations under different societal perspectives on sustainable development

6 Nov 2024

The future of food and land systems is crucial for achieving multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals, given their essential role in providing adequate nutrition and their significant impact on Earth system processes. Despite widespread consensus on the need for transformation, discussed strategies vary widely, from technology-driven to sufficiency-focused approaches, emphasizing different agents of change and policy mixes. This study assesses the implications of a new generation of target-seeking scenarios incorporating such diverse sustainability perspectives. We apply two integrated assessment models to explore food and land futures under three whole-economy Sustainable Development Pathways (SDPs): Economy-driven Innovation, Resilient Communities, and Managing the Global Commons. Our assessment shows that all SDPs align sufficient food supply with progress towards planetary integrity, halting biodiversity loss, mitigating adverse impacts from irrigation, and significantly reducing nitrogen pollution. While all pathways comply with the Paris climate target, they diverge in the timing of climate mitigation efforts and focus on different greenhouse gases and emission sources. The Economy-driven Innovation pathway rapidly achieves net-negative CO2 emissions from the land system, whereas Resilient Communities and Managing the Global Commons significantly decrease agricultural non-CO2 emissions. Moreover, sustainability interventions attenuate trade-offs associated with narrowly focused mitigation pathways and reduce reliance on carbon dioxide removal strategies like re/afforestation and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage.
sustainable development mitigation land use rd3 - transformation pathways rd2 - climate resilience food & agriculture 1.5/2°c limit

Authors

Weindl, Isabelle, Sörgel, Björn, Ambrosio, Geanderson, Daioglou , Vassilis, Doelman , Jonathan C., Beier, Felicitas, Beusen , Arthur, Bodirsky, Benjamin Leon, Bos , Astrid, Dietrich, Jan Philipp, Humpenöder, Florian, von Jeetze, Patrick José, Karstens, Kristine, Rauner, Sebastian, Stehfest , Elke, Stevanović, Miodrag, van Zeist , Willem-Jan, Lotze-Campen, Hermann, van Vuuren , Detlef P, Kriegler, Elmar, Popp, Alexander

Citation
Weindl, I., Sörgel, B., Ambrosio, G., Daioglou, V., Doelman, J. C., Beier, F., Beusen, A., Bodirsky, B. L., Bos, A., Dietrich, J. P., Humpenöder, F., von Jeetze, P. J., Karstens, K., Rauner, S., Stehfest, E., Stevanović, M., van Zeist, W.-J., Lotze-Campen, H., van Vuuren, D. P., Kriegler, E., Popp, A. (2024 online): Food and land system transformations under different societal perspectives on sustainable development. - Environmental Research Letters.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad8f46
Pages
25
Published in
Germany
Rights Holder
https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0

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