International demand for food and services drives environmental footprints of pesticide use

Author(s)
Tang, Fiona H M
Malik, Arunima
Li, Mengyu
Lenzen, Manfred
Maggi, Federico
Publication Date
2022-11-07
Abstract
<p>Pesticides are well-recognised pollutants that threaten biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Here we quantify the environmental footprints of pesticide use for 82 countries and territories and eight broad regions using top-down multi-region input-output analysis. Pesticide footprints are expressed as hazard loads that quantify the body weight (bw) of non-target organisms required to absorb pesticide residues without experiencing adverse effects. We show that the world's consumption in 2015 resulted in 2 Gt-bw of pesticide footprints. Of these, 32% are traded internationally. The global average per-capita pesticide footprint is 0.27 t-bw capita<sup>−1</sup> y<sup>−1</sup> , with high-income countries having the largest per-capita footprint. China, Germany, and United Kingdom are the top three net importers of pesticide hazard loads embodied in commodities, while the USA, Brazil, and Spain are the three largest net exporters. Our study highlights the need for policies to target pesticide use reduction while ensuring adverse impacts are not transferred to other nations.</p>
Citation
Communications Earth and Environment, 3(1), p. 1-12
ISSN
2662-4435
Link
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Rights
Attribution 4.0 International
Title
International demand for food and services drives environmental footprints of pesticide use
Type of document
Journal Article
Entity Type
Publication

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