Qatar is one of the countries with the highest carbon (C) footprints per capita in the world with an increasing population and food demand. Furthermore, the international blockade by some countries that is affecting Qatar—which has been traditionally a highly-dependent country on food imports—since 2017 has led the authorities to take the decision of increasing food self-sufficiency. In this study we have assessed the effect on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of shifting diets from conventional to organic products and from import-based diets to more regionalized diets for the first time in a Gulf country. We found that considering the production system, the majority of the emissions come from the animal products, but the differences between conventional and organic diets are very small (738 and 722 kg CO2-eq capita−1 year−1, of total emissions, respectively). Conversely, total emissions from plant-based products consumption might be around one order of magnitude smaller, but the differences in the emissions between the organic and conventional systems were higher than those estimated for animal products, leading to a decrease in 44 kg CO2-eq capita−1 year−1 when changing from 100% conventional to 50% of organic consumption of plant-based products. Regarding the shift to regionalized diets, we found that packaging has a small influence on the total amount of GHG emissions, whereas emissions from transportation would be reduced in around 450 kg CO2 capita−1 year−1 when reducing imports from 100 to 50%. However, these results must be read carefully. Due to the extreme adverse pedoclimatic conditions of the country, commercial organic regional livestock would not be possible without emitting very high GHG emissions and just only some traditional livestock species may be farmed in a climate-friendly way. On the other hand, organic and regional low-CO2 emission systems of plant-based products would be possible by implementing innovations in irrigation or other innovations whose GHG emissions must be further studied in the future. Therefore, we conclude that shifting towards more plant-based organic regional consumption by using climate-friendly irrigation is a suitable solution to both increasing self-sufficiency and reducing C footprint. We encourage national authorities to including these outcomes into their environmental and food security policies.

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转向区域饮食和有机饮食可以减少食物系统的温室气体排放吗？卡塔尔的案例研究

卡塔尔是世界上人均碳足迹最高的国家之一，人口和粮食需求也在增加。此外，自2017年以来，一些国家对卡塔尔的国际封锁一直在影响卡塔尔。卡塔尔一直以来都是高度依赖粮食进口的国家，导致当局决定增加粮食自给自足。在这项研究中，我们评估了海湾国家首次将饮食从常规饮食转换为有机产品，从基于进口的饮食转向更加区域化的饮食对温室气体（GHG）排放的影响。我们发现，考虑到生产系统，大多数排放物来自动物产品，但是传统饮食和有机饮食之间的差异非常小（总排放量为738和722千克二氧化碳当量人均-1年-1年，分别）。相反，来自植物性产品消费的总排放量可能要小一个数量级，但是有机和常规系统之间的排放量差异要大于动物产品的估算值，从而减少了44千克二氧化碳当量从基于植物的产品的有机消耗的100％变为50％时的人均1年-1年。关于向区域饮食的转变，我们发现包装对温室气体排放总量的影响很小，而当进口量从100％减少到50％时，运输的人均二氧化碳排放量将在人均1年-1年内减少约450千克二氧化碳。但是，必须仔细阅读这些结果。由于该国极端恶劣的人类气候条件，如果不排放非常高的温室气体，就不可能有商业有机的区域性牲畜，而只有一些传统的牲畜物种可能以气候友好的方式进行养殖。另一方面，通过实施灌溉方面的创新或其他有待于今后进一步研究其温室气体排放的创新，将有可能实现基于植物的有机和区域性低二氧化碳排放系统。因此，我们得出结论，通过使用气候友好型灌溉转向更多基于植物的有机区域消费，既是增加自给自足又减少碳足迹的合适解决方案。我们鼓励国家主管部门将这些成果纳入其环境和粮食安全政策。