Livestock causes 80% of agriculture emissions

Livestock production is the dominant cause of EU agriculture’s impact on climate change, air pollution and biodiversity loss, EU-funded research has found. Its contribution is 78 per cent for terrestrial biodiversity loss, 80 per cent for soil acidification and air pollution (ammonia and nitrogen oxides emissions which contribute to the formation of particulate matter and tropospheric ozone with a detrimental impact on air quality), 81 per cent for global warming, and 73 per cent for water pollution (both nitrogen and phosphorus). The agriculture sector itself is one of the major contributors to these environmental impacts, ranging between 12 per cent for global warming and 59 per cent for nitrogen water quality impact.

The figure includes emissions caused by agriculture in other sectors or occurring outside of the EU territory, such as feed imports and transport, and emissions from land-use change. To address these environmental impacts, a combination of technical measures reducing emissions and land-use intensity, and demand-side measures to reduce food waste and change dietary habits is needed, according to the authors.

Source: ENDS Europe Daily, 17 November 2015. The article: “Impacts of European livestock production: nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus and greenhouse gas emissions, land-use, water eutrophication and biodiversity.” By Adrian Leip et al. Environmental Research Letters 10 (2015) 115004.

In this issue

A 1.5 target is needed to save the Baltic Sea

Effects of global temperature increases on the biodiversity of the Baltic Sea.

CCS in Norway – still a long way from the goal

The CCS project at Mongstad in western Norway was finally cancelled in 2013, causing sarcastic comments about “The Moon landing that failed”.

How to account for emissions of greenhouse gases from imported goods?

Carbon emissions have dropped in many rich countries, Sweden among them. Or is it just that the emitting industries have moved to China? A technical discussion is getting intensely political.

Member states opt for weakening air pollution targets

Compared to the Commission’s proposal, the relaxed targets agreed by member states could result in an additional 130,000 premature deaths by 2030.

The EU should phase out fossil gas

AirClim has published a new report (1) about the need to phase out the use of fossil gas as soon as possible in order to meet the climate targets agreed at the UN Paris Climate Conference in December 2015.

Sanctions missing for ship sulphur sinners

In the first year of stricter standards in the Sulphur Emission Control Areas (SECA) of the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the English Channel, Swedish authorities took 441 ship fuel oil samples. They discovered 15 violations of the sulphur limit, but none of these resulted in fines or other types of sanctions.

New rules on emissions from medium combustion plants adopted

Despite a widespread agreement on the urgent need to cut emissions to improve air quality, existing installations are given very generous transition periods.

Cutting meat and dairy intake is beneficial for health, the environment and climate

Halving the consumption of meat and dairy in the EU would cut agricultural nitrogen losses by more than 40 per cent and GHG emissions by 25–40 per cent.

Sector targets for aviation and shipping wanted

In the absence of additional action, international shipping and aviation will be responsible for close to 40 per cent of global CO2 emissions by 2050.

Europeans still exposed to harmful air pollution

A new report by the European Environment Agency estimates that air pollution continues to be responsible for more than 430 000 premature deaths in Europe.

A new era for the debate on coal phase-out in Germany

2015 was not only the year of the groundbreaking climate agreement in Paris. It also marked a new era in political efforts on a more actively managed phase-out of power generation from coal and lignite mining in Germany.

Explaining vehicle emissions

A new report by the European Environment Agency (EEA) provides a non-technical guide that describes why, for certain pollutants, vehicles can emit substantially higher emissions on the road than official emissions tested in laboratories.