Carbon Emission and Global Food Security: A Cross Country Analysis

Abstract

This study was carried out to investigate the influence of carbon emissions and other socio-economic factors on global food security. Also, it creates global food security index (GFSI) for thirty one cross-country with different income groups from various regions of the World. In this study, Composite Z-index technique was employed in order to generate GFSI using several key determinants of food security. Subsequently, multiple linear regression models were also employed in order to assess the impacts of carbon dioxide emission and socio-economic factors on the constructed GFSI using country-wise panel data. The descriptive results of the study show that high income countries are the most food secured due to high cereal productivity, per capita land under cereal crops, per capita arable land, and high per capita gross domestic product. Developed countries have negligible poverty, constant population growth rate and less dependency on cereal import. Low and lower income group countries are in food insecurity trap due to rapid population growth, high infant mortality, high volatility in per capita food production and incidence of food-deficit. This study emphasized that lower middle and low income countries need to increase cereal production, in order to sustain food security. Based on the findings of this study, it is suggested that if the world's population grows at the current rate, then food insecurity would be more alarming in the near future. Empirical results recognized that per capita CO2 emission has negative impact on global food security negatively. Therefore, this study strongly recommends the necessity of the world's economies to develop alternative scientific techniques to abate greenhouse gas.