Developing greenhouse gas marginal abatement cost curves for agricultural emissions from crops and soils in the UK

MacLeod, Michael; Moran, Dominic; Eory, Vera; Rees, Robert M.; Barnes, Andrew P.; Topp, Cairistiona F. E.; Ball, B. C.; Hoad, SP; Wall, E.; McVittie, Alistair; Pajot, Guillaume; Matthews, R.; Smith, Pete; Moxey, Andrew

doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2010.01.002

Cited by 129 publications

(89 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…The challenge of reducing agricultural emissions is particularly acute, because the reductions achievable by changing farming practices are limited 2,3 and are hampered by rapidly rising food demand 4,5 . Here we assess the technical mitigation potential offered by land sparingincreasing agricultural yields, reducing farmland area and actively restoring natural habitats on the land spared 6 .…”

Section: Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Global Agriculture Are Increasmentioning

confidence: 99%

The potential for land sparing to offset greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture

et al. 2016

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Greenhouse gas emissions from global agriculture are increasing at around 1% perannum, yet substantial cuts in emissions are needed across all sectors 1 . The challenge of reducing agricultural emissions is particularly acute, because the reductions achievable by changing farming practices are limited 2,3 and are hampered by rapidly rising food demand 4,5 . Here we assess the technical mitigation potential offered by land sparingincreasing agricultural yields, reducing farmland area and actively restoring natural habitats on the land spared 6 . Restored habitats can sequester carbon and can offset emissions from agriculture. Using the United Kingdom as an example, we estimate net emissions in 2050 under a range of future agricultural scenarios. We find that a landsparing strategy has the technical potential to achieve significant reductions in net emissions from agriculture and land-use change. Coupling land sparing with demandside strategies to reduce meat consumption and food waste can further increase the technical mitigation potential, however economic and implementation considerations might limit the degree to which this technical potential could be realised in practice.We projected the mitigation potential of land sparing in the United Kingdom with reference to its binding commitment to reduce emissions by 80% by 2050 (relative to 1990 levels) 7 . We began by identifying a technically plausible range in the future yields of all major crop and livestock commodities produced in the UK, based on historic trends and future potential. We define yields as the annual tonnage of production per hectare for crops and the feed conversion ratio (feed consumed per kilogram of production) for livestock. Future yields could vary across a wide range, driven by a number of biophysical, technical and socioeconomic factors [8][9][10][11] . We assessed the likely bounds of this range based on an assessment of technical potential and reflect this in our projections, which span yield declines through to sustained long-term growth averaging 1.3% per annum across all commodities 3 (Table 1; Supplementary Fig. 1; Supplementary Discussion). For the avoidance of doubt, we do not equate our lower yielding scenarios with 'land sharing'.We next projected emissions attributable to UK agricultural production out to 2050, quantifying all sources of emissions that would be affected by a land-sparing strategy. We therefore quantified not only emissions reported under 'Agriculture' in the UK's greenhouse gas inventory 12 , but also emissions related to agriculture but reported in other sectors (e.g. farm energy use, agro-chemical production and land-use change), and emissions arising overseas due to imported feed for livestock (see Supplementary Table 2 for all emissions sources quantified). Our projections assumed that agricultural production increases from present levels in proportion to projected demand growth (Supplementary Table 1). In certain scenarios, projected UK farming capacity does not keep pace with demand growth. In such cases ...

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Section: Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Global Agriculture Are Increasmentioning

confidence: 99%

The potential for land sparing to offset greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture

et al. 2016

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“…This is because there are significant barriers, uncertainties and sensitivities in the application of these technologies throughout the global food system. Furthermore, knowledge of the interaction of these technologies within a heterogeneous farming system is somewhat limited and context dependant (MacLeod et al 2010;MacLeod 2015). Prescribing region-specific solutions is therefore limited by the biophysical, as well as the sociopolitical characterisation of these regions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can’t get there from here: attainable distance, sustainable intensification and full-scale technical potential

Barnes¹

2016

Reg Environ Change

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Full-scale technical potential provides a clear horizon for agricultural technology policy to meet the dual and urgent challenge of meeting food security and minimising the effects of climate change. A common stated goal is to double food production by 2050 to meet the needs of 9 billion people. The frontier of full-scale technical potential embodies this goal and provides a panacea for policy makers. However, the pathway between the present adoption of technologies towards this frontier is paved with some hazards which may be insurmountable. We develop a conceptual framework based on adoption levels of technology. The key criteria between current and potential adoption of technologies is the role of enablers, that is interventions which create changes in structural, distributional, technical, social and behavioural cultures. Policy must find optimal mixtures of regulation and voluntary mechanisms to fully encourage uptake of technologies and shift current adoption to meet full-scale technical potential. A range of technologies can be aligned with sustainable intensification and are examined in terms of this enabler framework. Further examination of the framework allows us to conclude that full-scale technical potential will never be achieved due to the stochastic nature of agricultural production, the diversity of motivations and institutional structures operating within food supply chains, as well as unbalanced cost-effectiveness criteria. We argue that sustainable intensification may provide a direction of travel for attaining food security but its poor conception, limited acceptability and understanding amongst the communities of interest lead to over-optimism in determining the journey to this final destination.

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“…Teknologi mitigasi tersebut antara lain adalah penerapan system pengairan secara berselang-seling antara kondisi basah dan kering, penggunaan varietas padi dengan emisi yang rendah serta penggunaan bahan-bahan pembenah tanah. Selain itu, banyak estimasi yang mengindikasikan bahwa beberapa opsi mitigasi dari pertanian relatif lebih rendah biaya dan menghasilkan keuntungan yang signifikan dalam peningkatan produksi dibandingkan dengan sektor yang lain (Smith et al 2006(Smith et al , 2008Beach et al, 2008;MacLeod et al, 2010). Penggunaan pendekatan biaya pengurangan atau marginal abatement cost (MAC) ini diperlukan untuk membuat pilihan terhadap opsi mitigasi yang sesuai.…”

Section: Pendahuluanunclassified

“…Pendekatan MAC adalah besarnya tambahan biaya yang diperlukan untuk menurunkan emisi GRK sebesar 1 t CO2e hingga kurun waktu tertentu. Secara umum, analisis MAC digunakan untuk menilai potensi ekonomi sektor pertanian dalam pengurangan emisi GRK (MacLeod et al, 2010;Moran et al, 2011). Analisis MAC memungkinkan untuk melakukan evaluasi terhadap strategi untuk mengurangi GRK terhadap beberapa skenario referensi yang meliputi biaya maupun manfaat yang diterima.…”

Section: Pendahuluanunclassified

“…Untuk sektor pertanian, pendekatan ini mulai digunakan sekitar tahun 2000 dengan menggunakan pendapat secara kualitatif (Weiske 2005(Weiske ,2006 dan beberapa penelitian empiris telah dilakukan di USA dan Uni Eropa (Beach et al, 2008;Macleod et al, 2010;Vermont dan DeCara, 2010;De Cara et al, 2011). Secara umum, analisis MAC digunakan untuk menilai potensi ekonomi sektor pertanian dalam pengurangan emisi GRK (MacLeod et al, 2010;Moran et al, 2011). Analisis ini menyediakan opsi mitigasi GRK, di mana opsi tersebut merupakan tambahan untuk kegiatan mitigasi yang diharapkan akan diberikan pada skenario'business as usual' (Moran et al, 2011).…”

Section: Dan United States Environmentalunclassified

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Biaya Pengurangan (Marginal Abatement Cost) Emisi Gas Rumah Kaca(GRK) Sektor PErtanian di Kabupaten Grobogan dan Tanjung Jabung Timur

2016

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ABSTRAKKomitmen Pemerintah Indonesia untuk penurunan emisi GRK sebesar 26% sampai 2020, melibatkan keikutsertaan daerah secara aktif. Penelitian ini bertujuan menganalisis opsi-opsi mitigasi pada pengelolaan lahan sawah yang mungkin dilakukan dengan menggunakan pendekatan Marginal Abatement Cost atau biaya pengurangan emisi yang berprinsip pada pemilihan aksi mitigasi dengan biaya rendah dan potensi penurunan yang besar. Lokasi penelitian dipilih secara purposive yaitu di Kabupaten Grobogan Propinsi Jawa Tengah dan Kabupaten Tanjung Jabung Timur Propinsi Jambi pada tahun 2013 untuk analisis tahun 2011. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan teknologi mitigasi yang berpotensi besar menurunkan emisi GRK dengan biaya rendah di Kabupaten Grobogan adalah penerapan teknik budidaya padi dengan penerapan Pengelolaan Tanaman Terpadu (PTT) dan penggantian varietas padi dengan varietas padi yang rendah emisi GRK. Sementara di Kabupaten Tanjung Jabung Timur, teknologi ameliorasi dengan kompos, pupuk kandang dan penerapan teknologi tanpa olah tanah+tanam benih langsung merupakan teknologi mitigasi yang memiliki potensi besar menurunkan emisi dengan biaya yang rendah.Kata kunci: pertanian, gas rumah kaca, biaya pengurangan emisi, mitigasi ABSTRACTThe Indonesian government's commitment to decrease GHG emissions by 26 % until 2020, actively involve local government's participation. This study aims to analyze mitigation options inpaddy fields management that may be performed by using the approach of Marginal Abatement Cost with the principle of selecting mitigation actions with low cost and high potential emission decrease. Locations were selected purposively in Grobogan Central Java Province and East Tanjung Jabung Jambi in 2013 for 2011 data analysis. The results show mitigation activity such as low methane rice varieties and Integrated Crop Management could be applied at Grobogan with low cost, while using amelioration such as compost or manure and non tillage+direct seeded could be applied at East Tanjung Jabung with low cost as well.

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Developing greenhouse gas marginal abatement cost curves for agricultural emissions from crops and soils in the UK

Cited by 129 publications

References 21 publications

The potential for land sparing to offset greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture

The potential for land sparing to offset greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture

Can’t get there from here: attainable distance, sustainable intensification and full-scale technical potential

Biaya Pengurangan (Marginal Abatement Cost) Emisi Gas Rumah Kaca(GRK) Sektor PErtanian di Kabupaten Grobogan dan Tanjung Jabung Timur

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