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Purpose. The purpose of this thesis is to explore and estimate greenhouse gas emissions from the public consumption in Gothenburg. The emissions will be presented per citizen. Purpose: research questions. 1. How large are the emissions from public consumption within Gothenburg?
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Purpose • The purpose of this thesis is to explore and estimate greenhouse gas emissions from the public consumption in Gothenburg. • The emissions will be presented per citizen.
Purpose: research questions • 1. How large are the emissions from public consumption within Gothenburg? • 2. Which amount of emissions are the consumption of food and public transportation in the public sector responsible for? • 3. Are there other important public activities generating emissions? • 4. What are the potentials to reduce climate impact from public food consumption and public transportation consumption until 2030?
Background: consumption • A complement to the production perspective. • Two types of consumption • Private: what private people spend money on e.g. housing, travelling, food. • Public: activities provided by the public sector e.g. Schools, hospitals, military, public transportation.
Background: consumption • Definition of public consumption in the thesis: • the entire running costs and investment costs for activities provided by public actors are considered as public consumption.
Background: consumption • Swedish EPA has estimated the Swedish consumption to be responsible for 10 ton CO2-eq/person. • 8 tons are from private consumption. • ”The rest”, 2 tons, are from public consumption. • Relatively good knowledge about the private consumption, but the public is rather unknown. • The goal in the municipality of Gothenburg is to have emissions under 1,9 ton CO2-eq per person and year in 2050.
Background: Public actors • The municipality of Gothenburg • The county council of Västra Götalandsregionen (VGR) • The Swedish state • The consumption from VGR and the state is allocated to Gothenburg.
Method: top-down • Combining economic expenditures from the actors with emission intensities to estimate total emissions. • Emission intensities are from Swedish Input-Output data (SCB).
Method: Bottom-up • Estimate emissions from public food consumption. • Looking at actual consumption of food and combine with emission data from studies (LCA etc). • Potentials for lowering the emissions in 2030.
Method: Bottom-up - Food • No records for actual consumed food for public actors. • Alternative estimation by using a report about climate impact from typical school meals. • 19 million meals per year are served in the municipality of Gothenburg. • Estimating total emissions and potentials for lowering the emissions in 2030.
Method: Bottom-up – Food • 8 standard meals and 3 vegetarian dishes. • Used to estimate a mean dish. 6/7 Standard and 1/7 vegetarian.
Method: Bottom-up – Food • Assumptions: • Potentials were estimated by using estimated reductions from another study. • The consumption of food was assumed to increase together with the population increase, thus being constant per person.
Result: Public food consumption • 0,053 ton/person is equal to 8,4 % of the municipality of Gothenburg’s total top-down emissions. • Possible reductions of 31-88 %
Discussion: top-down • 1,79 ton CO2 per person is smaller than the EPA’s 2 tons. This thesis is using a broader def. of public consumption. • Robust method, using emission intensities from actual Swedish consumption • Not good to use: as a benchmarking tool from year to year in this scale: when activities are conducted radically different than the Swedish mean. • But the goal is to get under a total of 2 tons per person and year in 2050, including ALL consumption.
Discussion: bottom-up • Public food consumption • Favourable to use actual food consumption while estimating emissions. • But the emissions are estimated from typical school dishes within the region. • The potentials are from a study which estimate potentials from average consumption, and not a school dish.
Conclusions: Further work • Try to cover emissions from all public consumption (e.g. cement) by using a bottom-up perspective. • Start keeping records of relevant purchases, like meat, rice and other emission generating goods. Good would be to keep record of all purchased public food. • Start to report emissions from a consumption perspective, as a complement to the production perspective, in the environmental reports. This is important to look at if the emissions are supposed to be fair according the goal of Gothenburg.
