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Free and green. The effect of decoupling CAP on emissions.

Von Sydow, Li LU (2016) NEKH01 20152
Department of Economics
Abstract
The Common Agricultural Policy is one of the most important policies within the European Union. However, the support from CAP have had some unexpected consequences for the environment. Major changes were made in 2003 regarding the way payments were given to farmers, in order to reduce the environmental impact of agricultural production. The support was made decoupled, which basically meant a greater freedom for European farmers. A freedom CAP was hoping would encourage more environmentally friendly practices and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
This study investigates whether this decoupling process managed to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases per agricultural hectare, and whether the growth of organic farming had any further... (More)
The Common Agricultural Policy is one of the most important policies within the European Union. However, the support from CAP have had some unexpected consequences for the environment. Major changes were made in 2003 regarding the way payments were given to farmers, in order to reduce the environmental impact of agricultural production. The support was made decoupled, which basically meant a greater freedom for European farmers. A freedom CAP was hoping would encourage more environmentally friendly practices and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
This study investigates whether this decoupling process managed to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases per agricultural hectare, and whether the growth of organic farming had any further influence. There are studies comparing organic versus conventional farming but there are no published studies on the link between the 2003 CAP reform and greenhouse gas emissions. This paper is an attempt to clarify the issue by doing a multiple regression analysis with data collected from FAOSTAT involving 20 European countries and 23 non-European countries during the years 2004–2010.
The results point towards that the 2003 CAP reform did have a mitigating effect on emissions, whereas organic farming could not be proved to have the same impact. This suggests that a decoupled support system may have been a step towards more sustainable and less environmentally harmful agriculture within Europe. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Von Sydow, Li LU
supervisor
organization
course
NEKH01 20152
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
2003 CAP reform, agriculture, environment, greenhouse gas emission, organic farming
language
English
id
8600206
date added to LUP
2016-02-11 15:02:02
date last changed
2016-02-11 15:02:02
@misc{8600206,
  abstract     = {{The Common Agricultural Policy is one of the most important policies within the European Union. However, the support from CAP have had some unexpected consequences for the environment. Major changes were made in 2003 regarding the way payments were given to farmers, in order to reduce the environmental impact of agricultural production. The support was made decoupled, which basically meant a greater freedom for European farmers. A freedom CAP was hoping would encourage more environmentally friendly practices and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 
This study investigates whether this decoupling process managed to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases per agricultural hectare, and whether the growth of organic farming had any further influence. There are studies comparing organic versus conventional farming but there are no published studies on the link between the 2003 CAP reform and greenhouse gas emissions. This paper is an attempt to clarify the issue by doing a multiple regression analysis with data collected from FAOSTAT involving 20 European countries and 23 non-European countries during the years 2004–2010. 
The results point towards that the 2003 CAP reform did have a mitigating effect on emissions, whereas organic farming could not be proved to have the same impact. This suggests that a decoupled support system may have been a step towards more sustainable and less environmentally harmful agriculture within Europe.}},
  author       = {{Von Sydow, Li}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Free and green. The effect of decoupling CAP on emissions.}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}