Fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions of world fisheries

Robert W.R. Parker, Julia L. Blanchard, Caleb Gardner, Bridget S. Green, Klaas Hartmann, Peter H. Tyedmers, Reg A. Watson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

290 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Food production is responsible for a quarter of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally. Marine fisheries are typically excluded from global assessments of GHGs or are generalized based on a limited number of case studies. Here we quantify fuel inputs and GHG emissions for the global fishing fleet from 1990-2011 and compare emissions from fisheries to those from agriculture and livestock production. We estimate that fisheries consumed 40 billion litres of fuel in 2011 and generated a total of 179 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent GHGs (4% of global food production). Emissions from the global fishing industry grew by 28% between 1990 and 2011, with little coinciding increase in production (average emissions per tonne landed grew by 21%). Growth in emissions was driven primarily by increased harvests from fuel-intensive crustacean fisheries. The environmental benefit of low-carbon fisheries could be further realized if a greater proportion of landings were directed to human consumption rather than industrial uses.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)333-337
Number of pages5
JournalNature Climate Change
Volume8
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 1 2018

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Research funding was provided by the Australian Seafood Cooperative Research Centre (Project 100596). R.W.R.P. acknowledges support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (PDF-487958-2016). R.A.W. acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council (Discovery project DP140101377).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Author(s).

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • Environmental Science (miscellaneous)
  • Social Sciences (miscellaneous)

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