A technology-forcing approach to reduce nitrogen pollution

David R. Kanter () and Timothy D. Searchinger ()
Additional contact information
David R. Kanter: New York University
Timothy D. Searchinger: Princeton University

Nature Sustainability, 2018, vol. 1, issue 10, 544-552

Abstract: Abstract Nitrogen pollution has exceeded safe levels outlined in the planetary boundaries literature. As agricultural production continues to intensify, pollution abatement will require acute increases in nitrogen-use efficiency. Policies that rely on the voluntary adoption of farm-level management practices have rarely led to significant reductions in nitrogen pollution and are unlikely to achieve the required efficiency improvements. Enhanced-efficiency fertilizers offer a promising opportunity, but have modest adoption rates and receive limited research support. Here we propose a policy to increase farmer adoption modelled on the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards used to increase the fuel efficiency of vehicles in the United States. This programme would require the fertilizer industry to increase the proportion of enhanced-efficiency fertilizers in traditional fertilizer over time, providing incentives for companies to improve both their products and their understanding of where their products are most effective. Using the US corn sector as a case study, we estimate that such a policy could generate net economic benefits of US$5–8 billion by 2030.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-018-0143-8 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natsus:v:1:y:2018:i:10:d:10.1038_s41893-018-0143-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/natsustain/

DOI: 10.1038/s41893-018-0143-8

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Sustainability is currently edited by Monica Contestabile

More articles in Nature Sustainability from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().