Population aging mitigates food consumption-induced non-CO2 GHG emissions in China

China has been experiencing rapidly growing agricultural non-CO₂ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and aged population owing to its vast population and enormous food demands. However, the response of non-CO₂ GHG emission to population aging-related food consumption is unclear. The food inspection survey reveals a significant difference in ruminant meat and staple food grain (typically rice) consumption between aged and young populations during the past decades. As a result, this dietary pattern in the aging population of 60+ reduce non-CO₂ GHG emissions from 1.0 Tg CO₂eq in 2005 to 10.1 Tg CO₂eq in 2020 by one order of magnitude. By 2050, the net total non-CO₂ GHG emissions from population aging-induced changes in food consumption will be further reduced by 34.5 Tg CO₂eq under the shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs), of which 86.8% is attributed to decreasing ruminant meat consumption (RMC), or 29.9 Tg CO₂eq, accounting for 15.3% of total non-CO₂ GHG emission from China’s RMC in 2050.