Product carbon footprinting in Thailand: A step towards sustainable consumption and production?

Thailand as one of the global food exporting countries shares the worldwide concerns on climate change and initiated carbon footprinting and labeling in 2008. Individual quick frozen fried chicken meat and canned tuna in sunflower oil were selected as the pioneering case studies for carbon footprinting using the PAS 2050:2008 standard. It was revealed that broiler farm and tuna fisheries are the key stages contributing significantly to the total carbon footprint of the two products considered. The study also revealed the need for using representative data of raw materials according to the local context requiring the urgent development of agricultural and food databases. The rules of using substitute data must also be clearly defined. The industry argued for using a mass instead of the economic basis required by PAS 2050:2008 in allocating the carbon footprint to chicken parts and tuna white and red meat. The commitment of producers to reduce the size of carbon footprint is suggested to be emphasized for carbon labeling rather than displaying a carbon footprint value to avoid the comparison between products. Product Category Rules (PCRs) should be developed with stakeholder consultations and harmonized at the global scale.

► Inventory databases are needed to facilitate product carbon footprinting at large scale.
► Harmonized product category rules are necessary for product carbon footprints.
► Reduction of carbon footprint should be emphasized over carbon labeling.