Klimata pārmaiņu samazināšana lauksaimniecības organiskās augsnes apsaimniekošanā Latvijā = Climate change mitigation in agricultural organic soil management in Latvia

Abstract

Ieva Licite. PhD thesis: “Climate Change Mitigation in Agricultural Organic Soil Management in Latvia”, Jelgava, 2024. The research and evaluation of the situation provided the basis for formulating the hypothesis of the thesis: scientifically supported and data–based decision–making on organic soil management promotes the achievement of Latvia's climate policy goals. The objective of the doctoral thesis is to develop proposals for improving the agricultural organic soil management decision making to promote the achievement of Latvia's climate policy objectives. To achieve the set objective, the tasks are formulated as follows: 1) investigate the main theoretical and political aspects of organic soil management in agriculture for mitigating climate change; 2) evaluate the practice of organic soil management in Latvian agriculture and identify potentially cost–effective measures for reducing climate change; 3) assess and compare the cost–effectiveness of the identified climate change mitigation measures, preparing proposals for decision–making in organic soil management in agriculture. The thesis structure is organized according to the tasks and consists of three chapters with subchapters. The first chapter explores the theoretical and policy aspects of agricultural organic soil management in the context of climate change reduction, and the phenomenon of organic agricultural soil is explained. The second chapter analyses agricultural organic soil management in Latvia, including its connection to agricultural support policies, using spatial, factor, and cluster analysis. By using the expert survey method, potentially cost–effective climate change mitigation measures are identified. The third chapter provides a comparative evaluation of the cost–effectiveness of selected climate change mitigation measures, using a multi–criteria decision–making analysis method for ranking based on similarity to the ideal solution and a marginal abatement costs method. An assessment of the potential impact of the measures is carried out, and a simulation of greenhouse gas emission projections is prepared to evaluate the potential impact of climate change mitigation measures on the achievement of Latvia's climate change policy goals. In the conclusion of the thesis, the main research results and conclusions are formulated, research problems identified during the study are defined, and proposals for their resolution are put forward. The thesis for obtaining a scientific degree consists of 130 pages. The thesis includes 20 tables, 22 figures, 4 annexes, and references to 378 information sources, of which 352 in English.