Recommendations for the Inclusion of Aquaculture Data in the Global Environmental Impacts of Consumption (GEIC) Indicator 2024

Abstract

Aquaculture is a rapidly growing sector with increasingly significant environmental impacts. Understanding the impacts of aquaculture production and trade is essential for informing policy relating to the sustainable consumption of commodities.

This report aims to scope out the potential for the inclusion of aquaculture data in the Global Environmental Impacts of Consumption (GEIC) indicator. It begins by introducing the indicator, aquaculture and the aims and scope of this report. It then explores the availability of production and trade data, uncertainties in the data and the key commodities, producers and consumers. Next, it discusses the recommendations for linking production and trade data and methods for improving the accuracy of the datasets. Finally, it describes the environmental impacts of aquaculture, assesses data availability for the environmental impacts of aquaculture and highlights the further work required for the potential inclusion of aquaculture data in the GEIC indicator. Elements of this report are also relevant to the broader inclusion of capture fisheries data.

The results from this report conclude that aquaculture production and bilateral trade data provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) can be linked, and trade flows modelled in the indicator. Furthermore, environmental impacts datasets relating to eutrophication, greenhouse gas emissions, phosphorus use efficiency (PUE) and feed conversion ratios (FCR), were identified and can be matched to production data at either a species- or aggregated group-level. These results demonstrate that the inclusion of aquaculture data in the GEIC indicator is possible with the datasets currently identified, however further work would be required to identify additional species-level impact data. Including aquaculture data in the indicator would provide a more holistic assessment of the environmental impacts of consumption.

This resource may not be fully accessible for all users. If you need a copy in a different or more accessible format, please contact Communications@jncc.gov.uk.