IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-03755481.html

Food, climate and biodiversity: A trilemma of mineral nitrogen use in European agriculture
[Alimentation, climat et biodiversité : le trilemme de l'utilisation de l'azote minéral dans l'agriculture européenne]

Author

Listed:
  • Rémi Prudhomme

    (CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AgroParisTech - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Raja Chakir

    (UMR PSAE - Paris-Saclay Applied Economics - AgroParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement)

  • Anna Lungarska

    (US ODR - Observatoire des Programmes Communautaires de Développement Rural - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement)

  • Thierry Brunelle

    (CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AgroParisTech - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Cirad-ES - Département Environnements et Sociétés - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement)

  • Narayanappa Devaraju

    (LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette] - UVSQ - Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines - INSU - CNRS - Institut national des sciences de l'Univers - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - DRF (CEA) - Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) - CEA - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives)

  • Nathalie de Noblet

    (LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette] - UVSQ - Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines - INSU - CNRS - Institut national des sciences de l'Univers - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - DRF (CEA) - Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) - CEA - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives)

  • Pierre-Alain Jayet

    (UMR PSAE - Paris-Saclay Applied Economics - AgroParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement)

  • Stéphane de Cara

    (UMR PSAE - Paris-Saclay Applied Economics - AgroParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement)

  • Jean-Christophe Bureau

    (UMR PSAE - Paris-Saclay Applied Economics - AgroParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement)

Abstract

Mineral nitrogen (N) application in agriculture has significantly increased food production over the past century. However, the intensive use of N-fertilizers also impacts negatively the environment, notably through greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss and remains a major challenge for policymakers. In this paper, we explore the effects of a public policy aiming at halving agricultural mineral nitrogen use across the European Union (EU). We investigate the impacts on food security, climate mitigation, and biodiversity conservation and we analyse the potential trade-offs and synergies between them. Despite the uncertainties associated with monetary valuation and the choice of modeling approach, our results show that climate-and-biodiversity-related benefits of halving N use in EU agriculture more than offset the decrease in agricultural benefits.

Suggested Citation

  • Rémi Prudhomme & Raja Chakir & Anna Lungarska & Thierry Brunelle & Narayanappa Devaraju & Nathalie de Noblet & Pierre-Alain Jayet & Stéphane de Cara & Jean-Christophe Bureau, 2022. "Food, climate and biodiversity: A trilemma of mineral nitrogen use in European agriculture [Alimentation, climat et biodiversité : le trilemme de l'utilisation de l'azote minéral dans l'agriculture européenne]," Post-Print hal-03755481, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03755481
    DOI: 10.1007/s41130-022-00173-3
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03755481v2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03755481v2/document
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s41130-022-00173-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anna Lungarska & Raja Chakir, 2024. "Projections of climate change impacts on ecosystem services and the role of land use adaptation in France," Post-Print hal-04692723, HAL.
    2. Robert Finger, 2023. "Digital innovations for sustainable and resilient agricultural systems," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 50(4), pages 1277-1309.
    3. Pierre-Alain Jayet & Athanasios Petsakos & Raja Chakir & Anna Lungarska & Stéphane De Cara & Elvire Petel & Pierre Humblot & Caroline Godard & David Leclère & Pierre Cantelaube & Cyril Bourgeois & Mél, 2025. "The European agro-economic model AROPAj," Working Papers hal-04109872, HAL.
    4. Thierry Brunelle & Raja Chakir & Alain Carpentier & Bruno Dorin & Daniel Goll & Nicolas Guilpart & Federico Maggi & David Makowski & Thomas Nesme & Jutta Roosen & Fiona Tang, 2024. "Reducing chemical inputs in agriculture requires a system change [La réduction des intrants chimiques dans l'agriculture nécessite un changement de système]," Post-Print hal-04644219, HAL.
    5. Huber, Robert & Späti, Karin & Finger, Robert, 2023. "A behavioural agent-based modelling approach for the ex-ante assessment of policies supporting precision agriculture," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03755481. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.