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TerraNova • Industrial Decarbonization

Food Industry Decarbonization

Everything a plant operator needs — the decarbonization toolkit, the sequencing playbook, two worked case studies, and how carbon pricing, tax credits, and fuel-side credits decide which projects actually clear an investment committee.

By Koorosh Behrang • Founder, Climate Decode • Updated

2 Papers • Net Zero for Food & Beverage
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Start Here•Sector Snapshot•The Papers•Series Lead•TerraNova

Start Here

Foundational • Gated

The Pathways Report

The complete toolkit — emissions hotspots, five lever families, a marginal abatement cost curve, the five-KPI screening matrix, the full carbon-market and tax-incentive stack, and two worked case studies with all the financing math.

By Koorosh Behrang • • The full report

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What You'll Learn

▶ Five decarbonization lever families

▶ Three reference plants: dairy, meat, potato

▶ A full marginal abatement cost curve

▶ Biogas & heat-pump case studies

▶ OBPS, CFR & Clean Tech ITC economics

▶ The five-KPI screening matrix

The Sector in Three Numbers

Food and beverage is heat-dominant and fragmented — a modest total footprint spread across far more plants, and more sub-sector profiles, than steel or cement.

~9,000 PJ

Global sector final energy / yr

60–85%

Of energy input that is thermal

−$22/t

Biogas net MAC with CFR (CAD)

Reference: three mid-scale plants (100 kt dairy, 90 kt meat, 200 kt potato). Federal OBPS at CAD $110/t (2026).

More in the Series

The companion briefing — SBTi target setting for food and beverage.

Briefing • SBTi

SBTi Target Setting for Food & Beverage

Why the sector must set both an energy-and-industry target and a mandatory FLAG target — and how the two fit together on a 1.5°C trajectory.

What's Covered

•  The energy-and-industry pathway plus the mandatory FLAG pathway

•  FLAG is mandatory for food & beverage; no-deforestation by 2030

•  Biogenic accounting for biogas, plus a full sponsor checklist

By Koorosh Behrang • June 2026 • 9 min read

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Want to know what these levers are worth for your plant?

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Koorosh Behrang

Series Lead

Koorosh Behrang

Founder, Climate Decode

Koorosh leads Climate Decode's market-intelligence platform, working at the intersection of carbon markets, industrial decarbonization, and corporate compliance strategy. The Food Decarb Series explores how plant operators turn the decarbonization toolkit into investable, finance-grade roadmaps.

Contact Koorosh →
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TerraNova

Climate Decode's decarbonization manager for industrial emitters. It turns plant operations data into a finance-grade investment plan — emissions hotspots, a marginal abatement cost curve, NPV/IRR by lever, and policy-aware economics across every revenue layer.

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