Sustainable phosphorus management in European agricultural and environmental law

Garske, Beatrice; Stubenrauch, Jessica; Ekardt, Felix

doi:10.1111/reel.12318

Cited by 75 publications

(38 citation statements)

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“…To this end, a multi-method governance analysis (or steering analysis) is applied. The analysis evaluates the impact of real or proposed governance instruments towards a given normative objective by taking findings of research on human behaviour and typical governance problems into account [11][12][13][14][15][16].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Non-sustainable use of fertilisers is directly linked to multiple negative environmental impacts. The accumulation of nutrients in agricultural soils is a major factor that causes nutrient losses in the environment and eutrophication of water bodies with negative effects on biodiversity [34] (p. 3-9) [15] (pp. 1, 2) [35] (p. 3).…”

Section: Food Waste Resource Wastage and Greenhouse Gas Emissionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Challenges of Food Waste Governance: An Assessment of European Legislation on Food Waste and Recommendations for Improvement by Economic Instruments

Garske

Heyl²,

Ekardt

et al. 2020

Land

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Food is wasted throughout the entire food supply chain—from agricultural production to the household level. This has negative impacts on natural resources and the environment. At the same time, food waste is undermining the global target of food security. In turn, reducing food waste can minimise the environmental effects of agriculture on climate, biodiversity, soils, water bodies and the atmosphere. All of this is reflected in the fact that food waste is subject to various legal acts of the European Union and that it is also a major subject in the new EU Farm to Fork Strategy from May 2020. Supported by an analysis of the diffuse empirical data on food waste, the purpose of this article is to analyse the current EU legislation on food waste and its reduction to answer the following research questions: How is food waste integrated into European policies? What is the impact of European legislation on food waste? Is European legislation sufficient to trigger not only food waste reduction but also comprehensive changes in the agricultural and food sector to support global climate and environmental targets as set in the Paris Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity? Which instruments are the most suitable to do so? Methodologically, a qualitative governance analysis is applied. It is found that relevant legal acts for governing food waste include circular economy and waste law, the Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy as well as food law, while international environmental targets serve as an overarching measure for governance analysis. The legal analysis shows that existing legislation lacks steering effect to significantly reduce food waste. To overcome current governance problems, the article introduces economic policy instruments. It is concluded that quantity control focusing on overarching parameters such as fossil fuels or animal-derived products has not only the potential to reduce food waste by increasing food prices but can also address the multiple interlinked environmental challenges of the agricultural and food sector.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Food Waste Resource Wastage and Greenhouse Gas Emissionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges of Food Waste Governance: An Assessment of European Legislation on Food Waste and Recommendations for Improvement by Economic Instruments

Garske

Heyl²,

Ekardt

et al. 2020

Land

Self Cite

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“…Thereafter, the governance approaches such as economic, command-and-control, and voluntary approaches will be discussed in comparative terms. The focus on transnational, namely European, solutions is due to the fact that national solutions typically cannot prevent shifting effects as a crucial governance problem [24,[32][33][34]96].…”

Section: Results: Policy Instruments Of Peatland Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…At the EU level, not even a Soil Framework Directive has been established. Similarly, on a national level, the German BBodSchG lacks appropriate regulations as well [96]. The principles of good professional practice in accordance with § 17 BBodSchG, which include humus conservation, are also formulated in abstract terms so that no binding requirements can be derived [110].…”

Section: Empirical Status Quo Of Agricultural and Environmental Law Rmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is important to say that since the discussed norms here serve only as an example. But generally speaking, command-and-control approaches in sustainability governance show serious flaws in dealing with the above-mentioned typical governance problems [24,[32][33][34]96]. This is due to the fact that command-and-control regulation addresses single actions, plants, or sites and therefore faces difficulties in dealing with problems of quantities-e.g.…”

Section: Empirical Status Quo Of Agricultural and Environmental Law Rmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Peatland Governance: The Problem of Depicting in Sustainability Governance, Regulatory Law, and Economic Instruments

Ekardt

Jacobs

Stubenrauch

et al. 2020

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Limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius and better even to 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to Article 2 paragraph 1 of the Paris Agreement requires global zero emissions in a very short time. These targets imply that not only emissions from degraded peatlands have to be avoided, but conservation and rewetting of peatlands are also necessary to figure as sinks to compensate for unavoidable residual emissions. However, with regard to instruments for meeting these targets, measuring, depicting, and baseline definition are difficult for greenhouse gas emissions from peatlands. In the absence of an easily comprehensible control variable (such as fossil fuels), economic instruments reach their limits. This is remarkable in so far as economic instruments can otherwise handle governance problems and react to various behavioral motivational factors very well. Still, peatlands can be subject to certain regulations and prohibitions under command-and-control law even without precise knowledge of the emissions from peatland use, which will be shown using the example of the European Union (EU) and German legislation. This paper is a contribution to governance research and illustrates that even comprehensive quantity-control instruments for fossil fuels and livestock farming—which would address various environmental problems and reflect findings from behavioral research regarding motivation towards sustainability—require complementary fine-tuning through command-and-control law, e.g., for integrating peatland governance.

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Sustainable Phosphorus

Beijer¹,

Slootweg²

2021

Encyclopedia of Inorganic and Bioinorganic Chemistry

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Phosphorus is a critical element, fulfilling important roles in bio‐, organic‐, and inorganic chemistry. Due to its versatile chemistry, phosphorus‐based chemicals have a wide array of applications in society. Most importantly, phosphorus is an irreplaceable and limiting building block for life. As such, the natural phosphorus cycle has historically set the pace for all life on earth. This all changed with the discovery of phosphorus‐based fertilizer, which has been largely responsible for the spectacular population growth over the previous century. Consequently, society has become highly dependent on these fertilizers for global food security. This comes with two major problems. Phosphate rock, the primary phosphorus resource, is finite and dwindling. While shortages are not imminent, continuation of current practices will eventually make them an inevitability. More pressing, however, is the problem of waste. Much of the phosphorus we use ends up in the environment, which has serious deleterious effects on biodiversity. Anthropogenic activity has thus disrupted the natural phosphorus cycle to such an extent that the word “cycle” is hardly applicable anymore. Clearly, there is pressing need for more sustainable practices. This article provides a holistic view on this important topic. The phosphorus industry relies on two phosphate rock‐processing pathways, based on either elemental white phosphorus or phosphoric acid as primary intermediate. Most fine chemical production relies on white phosphorus, accounting for a few percent of the market. As this process requires high energy investments, it is ideally omitted entirely. Novel synthetic pathways based on phosphoric acid are therefore needed, and notable examples are discussed, more in line with the principles of Green Chemistry. Ideally, chemicals are retained in near‐indefinite closed loops, using waste as resource as advocated by the Circular Economy and Circular Chemistry principles. Hazardous chemicals risking emission to the environment should be substituted where possible, or redesigned to alleviate their potential for harm. The vast majority of phosphate rock is processed to phosphoric acid, easily derivatized, and mostly reserved for the agri‐food sector as fertilizer or animal feed. This sector is highly inefficient, with major losses attributable to agriculture, food production, and consumption, as well as prior mining. Excess phosphorus intake due to animal product consumption exacerbates the problem. To address these issues, an interdisciplinary approach is necessary, involving legislation, education, and international cooperation between the many stakeholders. To truly close the phosphorus cycle, however, phosphorus needs to be recycled from human and animal waste. Many processes based on precipitation, wet and thermochemical treatment have been developed for phosphorus recovery, but value chains are necessary to bridge the gap between recovery and recycling. This requires alignment across stakeholders, favorable economics, and facilitative legislation.

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Sustainable phosphorus management in European agricultural and environmental law

Cited by 75 publications

References 0 publications

Challenges of Food Waste Governance: An Assessment of European Legislation on Food Waste and Recommendations for Improvement by Economic Instruments

Challenges of Food Waste Governance: An Assessment of European Legislation on Food Waste and Recommendations for Improvement by Economic Instruments

Peatland Governance: The Problem of Depicting in Sustainability Governance, Regulatory Law, and Economic Instruments

Sustainable Phosphorus

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