TY - JOUR
T1 - International demand for food and services drives environmental footprints of pesticide use
AU - Tang, Fiona H.M.
AU - Malik, Arunima
AU - Li, Mengyu
AU - Lenzen, Manfred
AU - Maggi, Federico
N1 - Funding Information:
This study is supported by the SREI2020 EnviroSphere research programme of the University of Sydney. The authors acknowledge the Sydney Informatics Hub and the University of Sydney’s high performance computing cluster Artemis for providing the high-performance computing resources that have contributed to the results reported within this work. The authors also acknowledge the use of the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI), which is supported by the Australian Government, and accessed through the NCMAS 2021 allocation scheme awarded to F.M. and the Sydney Informatics Hub HPC Allocation Scheme supported by the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research), the University of Sydney and the ARC LIEF (LE190100021). The authors acknowledge the use of the IELab infrastructure supported by the ARC Discovery Project (DP130101293). M. Lenzen acknowledges the support of the ARC Discovery Project (DP200102585). A.M. acknowledges the support of the ARC Discovery Project (DP200103005) and the ARC Linkage Project (LP200100311). F.H.M.T. acknowledges the support of the W H Gladstones Population and Environment Fund 2021 of the Australian Academy of Science. The authors thank Dr. Arne Geschke for conversations regarding MRIO modelling.
Funding Information:
This study is supported by the SREI2020 EnviroSphere research programme of the University of Sydney. The authors acknowledge the Sydney Informatics Hub and the University of Sydney’s high performance computing cluster Artemis for providing the high-performance computing resources that have contributed to the results reported within this work. The authors also acknowledge the use of the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI), which is supported by the Australian Government, and accessed through the NCMAS 2021 allocation scheme awarded to F.M. and the Sydney Informatics Hub HPC Allocation Scheme supported by the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research), the University of Sydney and the ARC LIEF (LE190100021). The authors acknowledge the use of the IELab infrastructure supported by the ARC Discovery Project (DP130101293). M. Lenzen acknowledges the support of the ARC Discovery Project (DP200102585). A.M. acknowledges the support of the ARC Discovery Project (DP200103005) and the ARC Linkage Project (LP200100311). F.H.M.T. acknowledges the support of the W H Gladstones Population and Environment Fund 2021 of the Australian Academy of Science. The authors thank Dr. Arne Geschke for conversations regarding MRIO modelling.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/11/7
Y1 - 2022/11/7
N2 - Pesticides are well-recognised pollutants that threaten biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Here we quantify the environmental footprints of pesticide use for 82 countries and territories and eight broad regions using top-down multi-region input-output analysis. Pesticide footprints are expressed as hazard loads that quantify the body weight (bw) of non-target organisms required to absorb pesticide residues without experiencing adverse effects. We show that the world’s consumption in 2015 resulted in 2 Gt-bw of pesticide footprints. Of these, 32% are traded internationally. The global average per-capita pesticide footprint is 0.27 t-bw capita−1 y−1, with high-income countries having the largest per-capita footprint. China, Germany, and United Kingdom are the top three net importers of pesticide hazard loads embodied in commodities, while the USA, Brazil, and Spain are the three largest net exporters. Our study highlights the need for policies to target pesticide use reduction while ensuring adverse impacts are not transferred to other nations.
AB - Pesticides are well-recognised pollutants that threaten biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Here we quantify the environmental footprints of pesticide use for 82 countries and territories and eight broad regions using top-down multi-region input-output analysis. Pesticide footprints are expressed as hazard loads that quantify the body weight (bw) of non-target organisms required to absorb pesticide residues without experiencing adverse effects. We show that the world’s consumption in 2015 resulted in 2 Gt-bw of pesticide footprints. Of these, 32% are traded internationally. The global average per-capita pesticide footprint is 0.27 t-bw capita−1 y−1, with high-income countries having the largest per-capita footprint. China, Germany, and United Kingdom are the top three net importers of pesticide hazard loads embodied in commodities, while the USA, Brazil, and Spain are the three largest net exporters. Our study highlights the need for policies to target pesticide use reduction while ensuring adverse impacts are not transferred to other nations.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85141498283&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s43247-022-00601-8
DO - 10.1038/s43247-022-00601-8
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85141498283
SN - 2662-4435
VL - 3
JO - Communications Earth and Environment
JF - Communications Earth and Environment
IS - 1
M1 - 272
ER -