Products

Product CO2e / kg Studies

Rice

2.578
CO2e / kg
= 100 g of Rice
You can consume
1.05
kg of Rice to exhaust your daily CO2e food budget

Categories: Grains | Food

Rice production is responsible for ~1.5% of global GHG emissions, mostly due to its high methane emission1. As oxygen cannot access the soil in the flooded rice fields, bacteria that emit methane grow abundantly. Although alternative growing methods are investigated that could reduce such emissions by up to 90%, practical challenges and potentially lower rice yields have thus far lead to little advances along these lines.

About 70% of the emissions from rice come from methane released by the rice paddies2. A further ~15% are emitted from energy consumption for the irrigation systems.

A regular serving of cooked rice is about 1 cup or 200-220 grams3, which corresponds to about 75 grams of uncooked rice4. With an emission factor of about 2.6 kg CO2e / kg, this amounts to 0.2 kg CO2e / serving.

  1. More Rice, Less Methane. Tim Searchinger and Richard Waite. World resource institute. 16 Dec 2014. https://www.wri.org/insights/more-rice-less-methane, accessed: 6 Nov 2022 ↩

  2. Aguilera, E., Guzmán, G., & Alonso, A. (2015). Greenhouse gas emissions from conventional and organic cropping systems in Spain. I. Herbaceous crops. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 35(2), 713-724. ↩

  3. How Much Rice Per Person is Required? John Bird. Boat basin cafe. 27 Jul 2021. https://boatbasincafe.com/how-much-rice-per-person/, accessed: 6 Nov 2022 ↩

  4. How much heavier is cooked rice than uncooked? Let's eat? https://antonscafebar.com/boil/how-much-heavier-is-cooked-rice-than-uncooked.html, accessed: 6 Nov 2022 ↩

Subcategories: Rice cakes | Rice (eco) | Risotto rice | Brown rice | Rice (cooked)

Studies

Source Notes CO2e Country origin Country consumption Weight
Environmental profile of rice production in Southern Brazil: A comparison between irrigated and subsurface drip irrigated cropping systems Table 9
Mitigation of environmental impacts and improvements of the rice production system under analysis: baseline production system vs. new production system (FU: 1000 kg packed rice at retail). -> New system (subsurface drip irrigated rice crop, among others improvements)
0.63
 Brazil Brazil 0
Environmental profile of rice production in Southern Brazil: A comparison between irrigated and subsurface drip irrigated cropping systems Table 9
Mitigation of environmental impacts and improvements of the rice production system under analysis: baseline production system vs. new production system (FU: 1000 kg packed rice at retail). -> Baseline
1.84
 Brazil Brazil 10
Evaluation of the environmental impacts of rice paddy production using life cycle assessment: case study in Bangladesh Contribution analysis shows that irrigation and emissions from paddy field are the most environmentally burdening stages across all major impact categories. Manufacture of fertilizer and pesticide also play a significant role in putting environmental load.
3.15
 Bangladesh Bangladesh 10
Rice intensification in Bangladesh improves economic and environmental welfare Table 3 (TYV, aman).
Traditional yield variety (TYV), aman (monsoon) season.
The aman season has historically been the primary rice season in terms of hectares planted given the high amounts of precipitation during the monsoons.
During the aman season, farmers generally plant TYV rice and rely solely on rainfall for irrigation.
1.35
 Bangladesh Bangladesh 10
Environmental life cycle assessment of rice production in northern Italy: a case study from Vercelli More than 80% comes from irrigation, of which most comes from methane emissions of the rice paddies.
8.31
 Italy Italy 10
A case study to estimate the greenhouse-gas mitigation potential on conventional rice production system
2.21
 South Korea South Korea 10
Carbon footprint for paddy rice production in Egypt
1.9
 Egypt Egypt 10
Potentialities of organic and sustainable rice production in Japan from a life cycle perspective conventional farming; 1.34 for sustainable farming
1.51
 Japan Japan 10
Greenhouse gas implications of novel and conventional rice production technologies in the Eastern-Gangetic plains Average over the 4 methods:
I. Conventional puddled transplanting with low residue retention (CTLR): 1.33
II. Conventional puddled transplanting with high residue retention (CTHR): 1.57
III. Unpuddled transplanting with low residue retention (UTLR): 1.11
IV. Unpuddled transplanting with high residue retention (UTHR): 1.19
1.3
 India India 10
How low can we go? An assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from the UK food system and the scope reduction by 2050 Rice, paddy
3.5
 Unknown United Kingdom 4
Greenhouse gas emissions from conventional and organic cropping systems in Spain. I. Herbaceous crops Table 2, rice, conventional
1.66
 Spain Spain 10
RISE Open access list 1.7 Per kg unboiled jasmin rice
3.1
 Thailand Sweden 5
RIVM Database Milieubelasting Voedingsmiddelen Rijst, witte
1.784
 Unknown Netherlands 5
Carbon footprints of rice production in five typical rice districts in China Average of the 5 provinces = 1.9
The CFs of rice productions in these five provinces were 2504.20 kgCO2-eq./t (kg carbondioxide equation per ton rice) (Guangdong province), 2326.47 kgCO2-eq./t (Hunan province), 1889.97 kgCO2-eq./t (Heilongjiang province), 1538.90 kgCO2-eq./t (Sichuan province) and 1344.92 kgCO2-eq./t (Jiangsu province) respectively.
1.9
 China Unknown 10
Ökologische Fußabdrücke von Lebensmitteln und Gerichten in Deutschland (IFEU) Reis
3.1
 Unknown Germany 6
Environmental impact of plant-based foods Climate impact in the studies varies between 0.5-2.0 kg CO2e per kg edible product. All data-points were considered relevant for the Swedish market, indicating that the climate impact of rice can vary greatly, but some studies show that climate impact is likely to be approximately 2 kg CO2e per kg edible product. European rice may have a lower impact (below 1 kg CO2e per kg edible product), but only two studies investigated emissions from European rice production.. Studies: 14
2.0
 Unknown Unknown 6
Klimatarier CO2 Rechner Reis
3.05
 Unknown Unknown 5
Greenhouse gas emissions of realistic dietary choices in Denmark: the carbon footprint and nutritional value of dairy products Table 1; including waste; excluding waste: 3.74
4.99
 Unknown Unknown 8
Systematic review of greenhouse gas emissions for different fresh food categories Table 5 Median; #LCA studies: 12; #GWP values: 27; Mean: 2.66; Stdev: 1.29; Min: 0.66; Max: 5.69
2.55
 Unknown Unknown 8
Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers Figure 1, flooded, 1000 kcal, https://www.nutritionix.com/food/rice
0.9
 Unknown Unknown 8
Mat-klimat-listan variation 1.5-3 kgCO2/kg
2.0
 Unknown Sweden 6

Recipes

*only recipes with more than 50 grams of Rice are shown.
Recipes