Development and Application of Economic and Environmental Models of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Agriculture: Some Difficult Choices for Policy Makers

Trevor Donnellan (), Kevin Hanrahan and James P. Breen
Additional contact information
Trevor Donnellan: Teagasc
Kevin Hanrahan: Teagasc
James P. Breen: University College Dublin

Chapter Chapter 13 in Agricultural Cooperative Management and Policy, 2014, pp 243-263 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This chapter describes how economic models designed to examine agricultural policy can be adapted to explore environmental applications such as the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture to a 2050 time horizon. The tensions between environmental policy aimed at reducing GHG emissions, and policies promoting agricultural production to increase food security are explored. Ireland is a major net exporter of beef and milk products, with agriculture representing a high share of non-Emissions Trading Scheme (non-ETS) GHG emissions. Ireland is used to illustrate an issue which has wide-scale global implications. The feasibility of achieving emission reductions is examined in the absence of technical abatement measures. Instead, to reduce emissions the size of the suckler herd is limited. However, it is found that even eliminating the suckler herd would leave emissions well short of achieving a 20 % reduction target. Even a 10 % GHG emissions reduction, while possible under this approach, is likely to be politically unfeasible. The tension between environmental and food security is likely to be replicated at a global level, given the significant contribution of agricultural production to anthropogenic climate change. The chapter highlights the importance of detailed modelling of future emissions in advance of setting feasible emissions reduction targets.

Keywords: European Union; Reference Scenario; Emission Trading Scheme; Climate Change Policy; Beef Production (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

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:spr:comchp:978-3-319-06635-6_13

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783319066356

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-06635-6_13

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Cooperative Management from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().