Greenhouse Gas Emission Mitigation and Emission Intensities in Agriculture

Uwe A. Schneider () and Pete Smith ()
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Pete Smith: Research unit Sustainability and Global Change

No FNU-164, Working Papers from Research unit Sustainability and Global Change, Hamburg University

Abstract: Energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions are closely linked. This paper reviews agricultural options to reduce energy intensities and their impacts, discusses important accounting issues related to system boundaries, land scarcity, and measurement units, and compares agricultural energy intensities and improvement potentials on an international level. Agricultural development in the past decades, while increasing yields, led to lower average energy efficiencies between the sixties and mid eighties. In the last two decades, energy intensities in developed countries increased, however, with little impact on greenhouse gas emissions. Efficiency differences across countries suggest a maximum improvement potential of 500 million tons of CO2 annually.

Keywords: Energy intensity; Agriculture; Greenhouse gas emissions; Mitigation potential; Fertilizer efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-ene, nep-env and nep-res
Date: 2008-07, Revised 2008-07
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sgc:wpaper:164

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