How costly is mitigation of non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture?: A meta-analysis

This text reviews the assessments of marginal abatement costs of methane and nitrous oxide emissions from agriculture. We use agricultural emissions and the corresponding prices collected from 21 studies that have assessed abatement potentials and costs using various modeling approaches and assumptions. We first highlight the implications of the modeling approach for marginal abatement costs. Harmonized abatement rates for three emission prices (10, 20 and 50 €2005/tCO2eq) are regressed on variables that reflect various modeling assumptions and study characteristics. In a second step, the emission price is introduced as an explanatory variable. When controlling for a few key characteristics of the studies, the models explain an important share of the observed variability in abatement rates. The type of modeling approach is found to have a significant effect. In particular, we find that equilibrium models lead to higher abatement rates for a given price. The flexibility in nitrogen use and its effect on crop yields also plays a significant role in lowering marginal abatement costs. The results of the second step indicate that the price elasticity of the abatement rate is about 0.6. This estimate is found to be robust to several specifications and consistent with previous assessments covering other economic sectors.