The impact of climate change on edible food production: a panel data analysis

Abstract

Food production as global public goods depends upon many factors. This poses a risk to food safety as well as food prices. One of the most prominent factors that affects food production is climate change, which is mainly caused by carbon emissions. The knowledge of the impact of climate change on food production is important in terms of food policies and awareness regarding the issue. The purpose of this study was to empirically investigate the way in which climate change impacts edible food production in 12 selected countries as they had the highest carbon emissions during the 1995–2014 period. Unlike previous studies in the literature, we employ a food production index as an indicator of food production that does not include products such as coffee and tea, which are not nutritious. Further, we investigate the effects of climate change both statically and dynamically. We also do not focus on any specific country or food, as done by many studies in the literature. The results revealed that climate change adversely affects food production, with the production of edible food decreasing with the increase of climate change/carbon emissions.

Keywords

• carbon emissions
• food production
• food price
• edible food production
• climate change
• panel data analysis