Agricultural GHG emissions in the EU: an exploratory economic assessment of mitigation policy options

Abstract

The main objective of this report is to assess the GHG emission reduction potential of a selected number of policy options and to quantify related production and economic impacts for the agricultural sector in the EU. Therefore the possible future evolution of agricultural GHG emissions in the EU are assessed through the simulation of scenarios including expected macro- and micro-economic changes. The proposed mitigation policy scenarios are all exploratory, i.e. it is intended to explore what could happen if policies would be implemented that explicitly force farmers in the EU-27 to reach certain GHG emission reduction targets. It has to be stressed that all policy scenarios are rather theoretical and hypothetical and do not necessarily reflect mitigation policies that are already agreed on, or are under formal discussion.