Linking environmental and economic modelling for informing policymaking in agriculture
López I Losada, Raül LU
(2024)
- Abstract
- The European Green Deal recognises the importance of addressing the environmental challenges posed by agriculture to meet the global biodiversity and climate agendas. Environmental policymaking is needed to drive and speed up sustainability transitions in agriculture because the environmental consequences of agricultural activities are not generally reflected in production costs and lead to market-driven production systems that are not delivering optimal outcomes for society. This thesis contributes scientific analysis for informing policymaking on the benefits and trade-offs of environmental measures concerning arable-land management, bioenergy crops with local soil co-benefits, a price on greenhouse gas emissions, and the removal of... (More)
- The European Green Deal recognises the importance of addressing the environmental challenges posed by agriculture to meet the global biodiversity and climate agendas. Environmental policymaking is needed to drive and speed up sustainability transitions in agriculture because the environmental consequences of agricultural activities are not generally reflected in production costs and lead to market-driven production systems that are not delivering optimal outcomes for society. This thesis contributes scientific analysis for informing policymaking on the benefits and trade-offs of environmental measures concerning arable-land management, bioenergy crops with local soil co-benefits, a price on greenhouse gas emissions, and the removal of coupled income support to cattle.
Chapters 1 and 2 study the societal benefits of improving arable-land management across the EU. This is done with a systematic review and meta-analysis of time series data in long-term field experiments, reported statistics on farm management and economic valuation of C sequestration for climate-change mitigation. Results from chapter 1 show that combining crop rotations, reduced tillage, organic amendments and soil cover can effectively restore soil organic carbon stocks in intensive arable land in climatic regions where wheat can grow. Chapter 2 shows substantial variation in climate-change mitigation benefits from soil management improvements across the EU. This indicates substantial potential to enhance cost-effectiveness of a payment eco-scheme promoting C sequestration through soil management by basing payment levels on expected benefits rather than adoption costs.
Chapters 3 and 4 analyse the environmental implications of policy interventions that advance (at least some) aspects of the European Green Deal for agriculture, namely a subsidy to promote arable grass for bioenergy, a price on greenhouse gas emissions, and removal of the Coupled Income Support to cattle. Both regional and global environmental aspects are captured by linking agent-based modelling of farming regions and territorial Life Cycle Assessment. The environmental implications of policy interventions are strongly influenced by regional structure features, and in particular changes in relative productivity, which can vary widely between intensive and extensive farming regions in the EU. This confirms the importance of adapting environmental policymaking to regional conditions and supports the regional development of the 2023 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, which also enhances national governance of the payment structure. Agent-based Life Cycle Assessment has thus the potential to speed up sustainability transitions in agriculture by contributing to identify the need or redundance of complementary policy interventions prior to implementation. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/b9301019-e01e-49b5-b7af-c8f25a3f97b6
- author
- López I Losada, Raül
LU
- supervisor
- opponent
-
- Associate Professor Styles, David, School of Biological & Chemical Sciences, University of Galway
- organization
- publishing date
- 2024-12-19
- type
- Thesis
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- carbon sequestration, CAP, crop-specialist holding, conservation agriculture, sustainable soil management, territorial LCA, carbon price, soil carbon, biofuel, arable grass rotation, european green deal, Agent-based modelling
- pages
- 177 pages
- publisher
- Lund University
- defense location
- Blue Hall, Ekologihuset
- defense date
- 2025-01-31 09:30:00
- ISBN
- 978-91-8104-326-6
- 978-91-8104-327-3
- project
- Production potential of agricultural biomass and policy instruments to promote a fossil-free society while meeting food production and environmental objectives
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- b9301019-e01e-49b5-b7af-c8f25a3f97b6
- date added to LUP
- 2025-01-07 12:09:45
- date last changed
- 2025-04-04 15:01:56
@phdthesis{b9301019-e01e-49b5-b7af-c8f25a3f97b6,
abstract = {{The European Green Deal recognises the importance of addressing the environmental challenges posed by agriculture to meet the global biodiversity and climate agendas. Environmental policymaking is needed to drive and speed up sustainability transitions in agriculture because the environmental consequences of agricultural activities are not generally reflected in production costs and lead to market-driven production systems that are not delivering optimal outcomes for society. This thesis contributes scientific analysis for informing policymaking on the benefits and trade-offs of environmental measures concerning arable-land management, bioenergy crops with local soil co-benefits, a price on greenhouse gas emissions, and the removal of coupled income support to cattle.<br/>Chapters 1 and 2 study the societal benefits of improving arable-land management across the EU. This is done with a systematic review and meta-analysis of time series data in long-term field experiments, reported statistics on farm management and economic valuation of C sequestration for climate-change mitigation. Results from chapter 1 show that combining crop rotations, reduced tillage, organic amendments and soil cover can effectively restore soil organic carbon stocks in intensive arable land in climatic regions where wheat can grow. Chapter 2 shows substantial variation in climate-change mitigation benefits from soil management improvements across the EU. This indicates substantial potential to enhance cost-effectiveness of a payment eco-scheme promoting C sequestration through soil management by basing payment levels on expected benefits rather than adoption costs.<br/>Chapters 3 and 4 analyse the environmental implications of policy interventions that advance (at least some) aspects of the European Green Deal for agriculture, namely a subsidy to promote arable grass for bioenergy, a price on greenhouse gas emissions, and removal of the Coupled Income Support to cattle. Both regional and global environmental aspects are captured by linking agent-based modelling of farming regions and territorial Life Cycle Assessment. The environmental implications of policy interventions are strongly influenced by regional structure features, and in particular changes in relative productivity, which can vary widely between intensive and extensive farming regions in the EU. This confirms the importance of adapting environmental policymaking to regional conditions and supports the regional development of the 2023 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, which also enhances national governance of the payment structure. Agent-based Life Cycle Assessment has thus the potential to speed up sustainability transitions in agriculture by contributing to identify the need or redundance of complementary policy interventions prior to implementation.}},
author = {{López I Losada, Raül}},
isbn = {{978-91-8104-326-6}},
keywords = {{carbon sequestration; CAP; crop-specialist holding; conservation agriculture; sustainable soil management; territorial LCA; carbon price; soil carbon; biofuel; arable grass rotation; european green deal; Agent-based modelling}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{12}},
publisher = {{Lund University}},
school = {{Lund University}},
title = {{Linking environmental and economic modelling for informing policymaking in agriculture}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/204443115/Thesis_RLL_OA.pdf}},
year = {{2024}},
}