Irrigated agriculture significantly impacts the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This study uses life cycle assessment, model scenarios, and the metacoupling framework to analyze the impacts of irrigated agriculture on the food-energy-water-CO2 nexus in China, focusing on the North China Plain (NCP) as a food-sending system, the rest of China as a receiving system, and Hubei Province as a spillover system. Results show that while the NCP's food production supports food sustainability elsewhere, it faces unsustainable water consumption. The South-to-North Water Transfer Project, designed to alleviate NCP water shortages, causes substantial water and land losses in Hubei Province. The study highlights the interconnectedness of environmental impacts across regions and underscores the need for holistic approaches to global sustainability.

Zhenci Xu, Xiuzhi Chen, Jianguo Liu, Yu Zhang, Sophia Chau, Nishan Bhattarai, Ye Wang, Yingjie Li, Thomas Connor, Yunkai Li