This report is an updated version of the methodology report on the big CLIMATE DATABASE prepared for CONCITO by 2.-0 LCA consultants in February 2021. The update was conducted in 2023. The report is the technical documentation of the big CLIMATE DATABASE (“den store KLIMADATABASE”), which is published by CONCITO. In addition to life cycle GHG emissions for more than 500 food products in the Danish market, the version 1.1 includes results for the same products in the Great Britain (GB) market. The updated version 1.2, conducted in 2024, expands the database to include 540 food products and covers three additional countries: France (FR), Spain (ES), and the Netherlands (NL). Version 1.2 is financed by 2.-0 LCA consultants.
In 2021, the big CLIMATE DATABASE was awarded the Nordic Environmental Prize. The update is funded by the money from the prize. The GB version is funded by Zedible (https://zedible.io/), and the FR, ES and NL version are funded by 2.-0 LCA consultants (https://lca-net.com/).
It should be noted that all linked LCA activities and their flows can be accessed on the webpage: http://www.thebigclimatedatabase.com/
This report documents the data and methods used to produce the big CLIMATE DATABASE v1.2. The current report is an update of the earlier versions of the report, which documented the big CLIMATE DATABASE v1.0 and v1.1. The database includes detailed data for 540 food items at retail in Denmark, Great Britain, France, Spain and the Netherlands. The database is among the largest and most complete of its kind.
The update of the big CLIMATE DATABASE has been funded by the prize from the Nordic Environmental Prize, which was awarded to the database in 2021. The GB version of the database is funded by Zedible (https://zedible.io/). The addition of the FR, ES and NL version is funded by 2.-0 LCA consultants. The modelling and calculations have been performed by 2.-0 LCA consultants.
The food market in the five study countries - Denmark, Great Britain, France, Spain, and the Netherlands - involves import of crops, animals, and processed food items from all over the world. Therefore, as part of the development of the big CLIMATE DATABASE, all crops and all animal categories in all countries in the world have been modelled. This also means that the current version of the database can easily be expanded to cover 540 food items at retail in any other country in the world.
Key principles for the development of the database have been consistency, completeness, flexibility and updatability. Consistency means that the same modelling principles and emissions models have been used across all crops, animals and food processing industries in all countries in the world. Completeness means that no flows have been cut-off in the life cycle inventories. This has been achieved by using EXIOBASE, which is a multi-regional hybrid input-output database, as background database. Flexibility means that any calculation module can be revised or replaced, and that the number of included crops, animals, food processing industries, countries, years etc., can easily be expanded. Updatability means, that the entire model can easily be populated by the newest data from global databases and thereby be updated to a new year.
