Eat less sugar to preserve the planet… This is the observation established by Spanish researchers. The latter suggest rethinking the production of sugar crops for non-food purposes.
It is known that excess sugar is harmful to health. But reducing its consumption would also have significant advantages in the fight against climate change, argue Spanish researchers from the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technologies of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB).
According to their study published in the scientific journal Nature Sustainabilitysugar has great potential for the production of biofuels for cars, including bioethanol. Starting from this premise, the researchers studied three different scenarios in order to determine the potential benefits in terms of climate and sustainability of using sugar crops for non-food purposes.
The first use envisaged is the reforestation of European Union land used for sugar production. The second scenario concerns the conversion of sugar beet crops to the production of bioethanol and the third, the export by the EU of surplus sugar production while Brazil switches from its sugar cane crops to the production of ethanol.
The study concludes that emissions could fall between 20.9 and 54.3 megatonnes of CO2 equivalent each year if the EU reduced its sugar consumption in line with health guidelines and if the surplus of Brazilian sugar cane was redirected towards the production of ethanol. Also according to the research, these energy savings would be four times greater than the reforestation of EU land and twice as great as the production of ethanol from EU sugar beets.
“This project clearly illustrates how broad collaboration can help steer society in a more sustainable direction,” says study co-author Jeroen van den Bergh, lecturer-researcher at ICTA-UAB.
To achieve a reduction in sugar consumption, the study encourages the deployment of public prevention policies, but also the introduction of a tax on sugar, similar to that used by the EU for tobacco in recent decades. . “The taxation of sugar will not only affect end use, but will also reduce the use of sugar by production sectors, such as beverages”specifies the research.
“For sustainability policies to be both effective and efficient, we need to take into account all of their effects on the environmental, social and economic pillars. Changing the way we use sugar crops is an interesting strategy from this point of view, because sugar is arguably the least efficient crop for food, not to mention its negative health effects”conclude the researchers.
(ETX Daily Up)