Global phosphorus cycling: The impact of international commercial trading and the path towards sustainable phosphorus management

Sin Jin Ng, Bing Li, Zhengyang He, Jing-Cheng Han, Muhammad Tajammal Munir, Xiaofeng Wu and Yuefei Huang

Resources Policy, 2023, vol. 85, issue PA

Abstract: Phosphorus is vital for global food production, but its use in commercial fertilizers has led to significant changes in the global P cycle. This has resulted in the depletion of phosphate rock deposits and increased eutrophication in lakes and oceans. While attempts have been made to quantify phosphorus flow at a country or regional level, there is still a lack of comprehensive understanding of how international commercial trading affects global phosphorus cycling over time. Through substance flow analysis, this research has found that the total global P flows through the five major P trade products have increased by around 5.4 Tg P between 2000 and 2019, with agricultural products trade having the fastest growth rate. The net P budget in the global trade of products changed among countries throughout these twenty years and relates to local natural resources and policies. Overall the global P flow has shifted from phosphate rock dominated structure to phosphate fertilizers and phosphoric acid dominated structure from 2000 to 2019, with centralized production reducing P resource losses during manufacturing. However, there are risks associated with P redistribution, including P resource shortages in certain countries/regions (e.g. Japan) and P pollutant accumulations in others (e.g. Brazil). These results highlight the importance of trade on the global phosphorus cycle and the need for both consuming and supplying countries/regions to work together to propose effective solutions for sustainable management of P in the future.

Keywords: Global P cycle; Substance Flow Analysis (SFA); Structural Decomposition Analysis (SDA); Resource-oriented Dependency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:85:y:2023:i:pa:s0301420723004920

DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2023.103781

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