Simulating the impact on health of internalising the cost of carbon in food prices combined with a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Rising greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs) have implications for health and up to 30 % of emissions globally are thought to arise from agriculture. Synergies exist between diets low in GHGEs and health however some foods have the opposite relationship, such as sugar production being a relatively low source of GHGEs. In order to address this and to further characterise a healthy sustainable diet, we model the effect on UK non-communicable disease mortality and GHGEs of internalising the social cost of carbon into the price of food alongside a 20 % tax on sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs).

Methods

Developing previously published work, we simulate four tax scenarios: (A) a GHGEs tax of £2.86/tonne of CO2 equivalents (tCO2e)/100 g product on all products with emissions gr

SUBMITTER: Briggs ADM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4738773 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature