Abstract. Agriculture significantly contributes to emissions of greenhouse gases in the EU. By using a farm-type, supply-side oriented, linear-programming model of the European agriculture, the baseline levels of methane and nitrous oxide emissions are assessed at the regional level in the EU-15. For a range of CO 2 -equivalent prices, we assess the potential abatement, as well as the resulting optimal mix of emission sources in the total abatement. Furthermore, we show that the spatial variability of the abatement achieved at a given carbon price is large, indicating that abatement cost heterogeneity is a fundamental feature in the design of a mitigation policy. The cost savings permitted by market-based instruments relative to uniform standard are shown to be large.

No abstract

No abstract

We propose a quantitative assessment of the marginal abatement costs (MAC) of greenhouse gas emissions from European agriculture and analyze the implications of the non-ETS burden-sharing agreement (BSA) for this sector. This assessment is based on MAC reduced forms, the generic specification of which enables simple parameterization and numerical computations. Such MAC curves are parameterized for each Member State using the outputs of a detailed model of the European agricultural supply. They are then used to compute total and marginal abatement costs involved by the BSA targets, as well as the cost-effective effort sharing, the corresponding emission price and abatement costs. The main findings are: (i) flexibility mechanisms such as a cap-and-trade system for agricultural emissions could reduce the total costs of meeting the 10% EU abatement target by a factor two to three relative to the strict implementation of each country's target, (ii) the corresponding equilibrium emission price is found to be 32-42€/tCO2eq depending on the assumption regarding business-as-usual emissions, and (iii) a cap-and-trade system with allowances based on the BSA targets would involve substantial transfers from EU-15 countries to New Member States, an important share of which being made of 'hot air'.Les auteurs proposent une évaluation des coûts marginaux d'abattement des émissions de gaz à effet de serre d'origine agricole en Europe et en analysent les implications du partage de l'effort européen pour les émissions non couvertes par le système d'échange de quotas (non-ETS). L'évaluation est basée sur des formes réduites des courbes de coût marginal d'abattement, dont la spécification générique permet une paramétrisation et des calculs numériques simples. Ces courbes sont paramétrées pour chaque Etat-Membre en se basant sur les résultats d'un modèle détaillé de l'offre agricole Européenne. Ces courbes sont ensuite utilisées pour calculer les coûts totaux et marginaux associés aux cibles fixées par le partage de l'effort, ainsi que le partage coût-efficace, le prix des émissions et les coûts d'abattement correspondants. Les principaux résultats des auteurs sont : (i) des mécanismes de flexibilité, tel qu'un système d'échange de quotas européen pour l'agriculture, permettraient de réduire le coût total d'atteindre la cible de réduction 10% des émissions agricoles européennes pourrait être divisé par 2 ou 3 par rapport à la stricte application des cibles nationales; (ii) le prix d'équilibre des émissions s'établirait entre 32 et 42 EUR/tCO2eq selon l'hypothèse relative aux émissions de référence en 2020; (iii) un système de quotas dont l'allocation initiale serait basée sur les cibles nationales prévues par le partage de l'effort européen conduirait à des transferts substantiels des pays de l'UE-15 vers les nouveaux Etats-Membres, une partie importante de ces transferts étant constituée d'"air chaud"

No abstract

This article reports findings from a simulation model representing the European farming system disaggregated at different scales. This modeling experiment explores the effects of various decoupling options associated with the 2003 European agreement on gross margins, land use, shadow cost of land, and greenhouse gas emissions. Our results show increases in the farmers' gross margins when decoupled support is maintained equal to the amount of direct aid previously attributed to agricultural production, assuming unchanged prices. Land used for pasture increases at the expense of land used for cereals and protein crops. The extent to which these effects materialize depends on the policy options selected by Member States when implementing the Luxembourg agreement. When they opt for some recoupling of support, adverse net economic impacts occur for producers. Regional differences in impacts are more pronounced than the analysis aggregated at European and national scales suggests. This highlights the need for further work based on geostatistical downscaling. JEL classifications: C67, D78, Q18, Q54

No abstract

No abstract