Costs and Benefits of Nitrogen for Europe and Implications for Mitigation

Abstract

Cost-benefit analysis can be used to provide guidance for emerging policy priorities in reducing nitrogen (N) pollution. This paper provides a critical and comprehensive assessment of costs and benefits of the various flows of N on human health, ecosystems and climate stability in order to identify major options for mitigation. The social cost of impacts of N in the EU27 in 2008 was estimated between €75-485 billion per year. A cost share of around 60% is related to emissions to air. The share of total impacts on human health is about 45% and may reflect the higher willingness to pay for human health than for ecosystems or climate stability. Air pollution by nitrogen also generates social benefits for climate by present cooling effects of N containing aerosol and C-sequestration driven by N deposition, amounting to an estimated net benefit of about €5 billion/yr. The economic benefit of N in primary agricultural production ranges between €20-80 billion/yr and is lower than the annual cost of pollution by agricultural N which is in the range of €35-230 billion/yr. Internalizing these environmental costs would lower the optimum annual N-fertilization rate in Northwestern Europe by about 50 kg/ha. Acknowledging the large uncertainties and conceptual issues of our cost-benefit estimates, the results support the priority for further reduction of NH3 and NOx emissions from transport and agriculture beyond commitments recently agreed in revision of the Gothenburg Protocol.

Reactive nitrogen requirements to feed the world in 2050 and potential to mitigate nitrogen pollution

“…In the air, it leads to the formation of ozone and particulate matter. Negative impacts on human welfare 1,7,12 include direct health damages like cancer and asthma, as well as the loss of ecosystem services, affecting for instance the productivity of aquatic ecosystems and hence fishing 13 . In monetary terms, Nr pollution is estimated to cause damages in the magnitude of 0.3-3% of global gross domestic product (GDP) 1 .…”

Agriculture-independent, sustainable, fail-safe and efficient food production by autotrophic single-cell protein

“…No comprehensive study was found that sums up all hidden costs of IA. However, health costs caused by nitrogen fertilizers were estimated for Europe to range between 70 and 320 billion € each year, of which health costs and air pollution constitute about 75% [16]. These big amounts can be explained by the numerous effects of the degradation products of nitrogen fertilizer such as NOx, NH 3 , N 2 O and nitrate.…”

Reducing the health effect of particles from agriculture

“…The social cost of all nitrogen pollution in the EU27 has been estimated at € 75-485 billion per year, of which close to half is attributed to health damage from SIA air pollution. 8 For the US, annual health costs of ammonia emissions associated with agricultural exports alone were estimated at US$ 60 billion. 9 Of course, abatement measures come at a cost -but the total cost for the proposed emission controls by agriculture are a mere 2-3% of the total emission control costs estimated for the complete package (about € 2.5 billion/year out of € 91 billion).…”