Controlled Environment Agriculture Could Mitigate Energy-Food-Climate Trade-off Under Confluent Conditions

Controlled Environment Agriculture Could Mitigate Energy-Food-Climate Trade-off Under Confluent Conditions | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Controlled Environment Agriculture Could Mitigate Energy-Food-Climate Trade-off Under Confluent Conditions Shiwei Ng, S Viswanathan, Kai-Olaf Hinrichsen This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5121899/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 02 Feb, 2026 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) can potentially achieve the dual goal of food security and lower carbon emissions in food systems. However, contextual factors such as what is produced, how it is produced and where production is sited, determines the feasibility to meet these goals. Here, favourable circumstances were identified through a maximum energy use-productivity threshold (MET) as a key performance indicator. Results confirm that the potential as a lower carbon alternative to international import exists when growing lettuce in land-locked countries with low grid emission factor or when substituting air freighting of short shelf-life produce such as strawberries. Observations remain consistent in prospective low-carbon energy scenarios, further highlighting the importance of advancing current CEA efficiency. Establishing CEA on non-arable land allows substituted agricultural land to be restored for biodiversity and climate mitigation purposes. Results show that high energy use-productivity requirements associated with CEA of cereal crops could be justified when the potential for carbon sequestration from agricultural land substituted by CEA is accounted for. The MET derived here can inform policy as well as serve as an aspirational goal for researchers in CEA. Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental sciences/Environmental impact Scientific community and society/Agriculture Scientific community and society/Energy and society/Energy efficiency Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files SupplementaryData1.xlsx Supplementary Data 1 SupplementaryInformation.docx Supplementary Information Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 02 Feb, 2026 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5121899","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":438090842,"identity":"7c1677da-357b-4391-9a6a-ba06984765b3","order_by":0,"name":"Shiwei 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