In the last two years focus on carbon emissions arising from transporting agricultural produce around the world from production areas to markets, and in particular by air, has created a lot of debate. Food miles are loosely defined as the distance fresh produce and flowers travel from source to market. This is a very simple definition and needs to be refined to include the complete supply chain from procurement of the seed and planting material through to the eventual consumption and disposal of the food. DEFRA released figures in 2007 that shows carbon dioxide levels are increasing more rapidly than ever and that the UK food transport industry emitted 18m tons of carbon dioxide. A recent study on contributions to UK food transport has showed that airfreight contributes 10 per cent of the CO2 emissions while heavy goods vehicles were responsible for over 57 per cent. (AEA Technology, 2005). Further data available also shows that CO2 emissions from shipping are more than double that of airfreight (The Guardian, 2008).

With the global population set to hit eight billion by 2025 and just over nine billion people by 2050 (UN) the amount of food that will have to be produced and moved around the world annually will continue to increase. The debate on food miles needs to be expanded to not just include road and sea transport but to look at the total carbon emissions through the supply chain and evaluate how to reduce these at each stage of the chain to achieve a carbon neutral rating

The drive to eat locally grown produce and to not eat out of season produce is neither realistic nor practical. The demographics in the world have changed and a practical approach needs to be arrived at that ensures agricultural produce is grown in the most suitable climates, without subsidies and as efficiently as possible with a goal to ensure that the total carbon emissions are significantly reduced from the current levels.

As trade policies and tools are being considered to achieve climate change objectives, there is a fundamental need to ensure that countries that have least contributed to the problem of climate change are not made to pay an unfair price for its solution. Similarly, when incentive measures are being considered in the trade system, it is essential to ensure that these will be relevant to countries that are already experiencing the effects of climate change, such a flooding, droughts and declines in productivity and trading potential.

This set of issue briefs - produced by leading thinkers in research institutes, international organisations and independent non-governmental organisations -was put together by ICTSD with a view to look beyond some of the rhetoric in the debate on trade and climate change, and to identify some of the emerging issues from an equity and development perspective.

If the international community is committed to ensuring that climate change policies attend to the urgent task at hand of reducing carbon while delivering the social primary goods that societies require in a fair manner, much work remains. This presents challenges both from an analytical perspective and with respect to ensuring the adequacy of current regulatory frameworks within the increasingly complex trade regime.