Integrating climate, environment, and public health in the Norwegian food system to assess efficient, safe, and acceptable policy options

Norway’s food system is challenged not only by internal goal conflicts, but also by increasing ambitions from other policy areas such as climate, environment and public health. A key challenge and knowledge gap is to identify policy measures that contribute to a successful transition that is economically efficient, sustainable, socially acceptable and politically feasible. 

CHEOPS will propose a new, holistic, interdisciplinary and integrated analysis to uncover the many interdependencies related to food, environment, climate and public health. The main method is economic modeling to analyze trade-offs, synergies, benefits and costs based on both monetary and non-monetary valuation of ecosystem services and other conditions related to agriculture. 

The main goal is to identify opportunities and solutions for a sustainable development of the food sector in Norway, with regard to political ambitions and connections between food, environment, climate, public health and other societal goals. 

Ruralis will lead the project with partners from Menon Economics, NIBIO and the University of Oslo.