Carbon and sugar tax could ‘significantly’ improve population health

Health benefits could be achieved by both a carbon and sugar tax on food and drink in the UK, according to Oxford scientists. 

The taxes would also reduce greenhouse emissions and raise up to £3.6bn, they claim.

Adam Briggs, lead researcher from Oxford University, said: "Agriculture is responsible for up to 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions and those arising from food production have negative effects that aren't borne by the individual buying the food, but by society as a whole.”

Scientists from Oxford and Reading University tested four tax scenarios to see the economic, environmental and health effects they would have. The first was a carbon tax - £2.86 per ton of CO₂ on foods that produced emissions higher than the average for all food groups. The second model was the same carbon tax as the first model but included subsidies to foods below the average for all food groups. Both scenarios had a 20% sugar tax applied to them for models three and four.

All tax scenarios led to a decrease in beef and lamb but with an increase in poultry and pork purchases. Delayed deaths from heart disease and cancer were also predicted due to an increased fibre intake and a difference in fat consumption.

All scenarios predicted greenhouse gas emissions reducing by between 16.5m and 18.9m tons of CO₂ every year. The two scenarios that didn’t include subsidies for low emission food produced income of £3bn and £3.4bn – due to the sugar tax – respectively.

The study demonstrated a food carbon tax could have ‘meaningful effects’ on greenhouse gas emissions without harming health, said Briggs.

“Small tweaks to the design of the tax, such as a tax on soft drinks, can result in significant improvements to population health without dramatically reducing the effect on emission reductions,” he added.

The research was published in BMC Public Health.