Franz Weiss

Impacts of European livestock production: nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus and greenhouse gas emissions, land-use, water eutrophication and biodiversity

Livestock production systems currently occupy around 28% of the land surface of the European Union (equivalent to 65% of the agricultural land). In conjunction with other human activities, livestock production systems affect water, air and soil quality, global climate and biodiversity, altering the biogeochemical cycles of nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon. Here, we quantify the contribution of European livestock production to these major impacts. For each environmental effect, the contribution of livestock is expressed as shares of the emitted compounds and land used, as compared to the whole agricultural sector. The results show that the livestock sector contributes significantly to agricultural environmental impacts. This contribution is 78% for terrestrial biodiversity loss, 80% for soil acidification and air pollution (ammonia and nitrogen oxides emissions), 81% for global warming, and 73% for water pollution (both N and P). The agriculture sector itself is one of the major contributors to these environmental impacts, ranging between 12% for global warming and 59% for N water quality impact. Significant progress in mitigating these environmental impacts in Europe will only be possible through a combination of technological measures reducing livestock emissions, improved food choices and reduced food waste of European citizens.

An economic assessment of GHG mitigation policy options for EU agriculture

The report presents an overview of the historical and projected development of agricultural GHG emissions in the EU. The major objective of the report is to present the improvements made in the CAPRI modelling system with respect to GHG emission accounting and especially regarding the implementation of endogenous technological mitigation options. Furthermore, the CAPRI model was applied to provide a quantitative assessment of illustrative GHG mitigation policy options in the agricultural sector, and their production and economic implications.

Agri-Environmental Nitrogen Indicators for EU27

Nitrogen is a key element to ensure modern agriculture’s output, sustaining global food, feed, fibre and now bio-energy production. But it also accounts also for, or at least contributes to, key environmental problems that challenge the well functioning of today’s societies (Sutton et al. 2011). One molecule of nitrogen can contribute to one or many environmental problems, including eutrophication, groundwater pollution via leaching and run-off of nitrates and organic nitrogen, climate change via N2O emissions, acidification via ammonia emissions and may affect human health via ozone formation or biodiversity via nitrogen deposition on natural areas. This multiple impact of nitrogen is often referred to as the “nitrogen cascade” (Galloway et al. 2003).