Agriculture-deforestation emissions

A research paper quantifying tropical deforestation emissions from 2010–2014, finding that agriculture and forestry expansion caused ~2.6 gigatonnes CO2 per year. The study highlights that 29%–39% of these emissions were driven by international trade, with cattle and oilseeds as primary drivers and the EU and China as major importers.

• Between 2010 and 2014, the expansion of forestry plantations and agriculture into tropical forests resulted in net emissions of roughly 2.6 gigatonnes of CO2 annually, with cattle and oilseed products, such as palm oil and soy, responsible for more than 50% of these emissions.
• International trade drove between 29% and 39% of deforestation-related emissions during the 2010–2014 period. This proportion is significantly higher than the share of fossil carbon emissions embodied in trade, suggesting that international demand is a critical driver of deforestation.
• Deforestation emissions make up approximately 15% (one-sixth) of the total carbon footprint of food consumption in EU countries. For many developed nations, the emissions from deforestation embodied in imports are equal to or greater than emissions from their own domestic agriculture.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2019). Agriculture-deforestation emissions. https://www.sei.org/publications/agriculture-deforestation-emissions/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Agriculture-deforestation emissions. 2019. https://www.sei.org/publications/agriculture-deforestation-emissions/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Agriculture-deforestation emissions |date=22 March 2019 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/agriculture-deforestation-emissions/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2019agriculturedeforestation, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Agriculture-deforestation emissions}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2019}, month = mar, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/agriculture-deforestation-emissions/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }