Autor: Viktoriya Sturm

The warming of the Earth’s climate, which is evident from numerous observations, poses great risks for human and natural systems. Since the main cause of climate warming is the rise of anthropogenic GHG emissions, a responsible policy is called for the reduction of human-induced GHG emissions. In order to achieve an effective reduction, GHG emissions have to be reduced worldwide and across all sectors. The focus of this study is the EU’s climate policy and the question – Which policy instruments can be used to reduce GHG emissions related to agriculture and how efficient they are? For this purpose a closer look at the issue of climate change is taken and an overview of international, EU and German climate policy is provided. The role of agriculture in context of climate change as a polluter, victim and benefactor is closer examined. It is considered what policy instruments can be used from theoretical point of view to reduce GHG emissions. Particular attention is paid to the management of global commons, to which the earth’s atmosphere belongs, and to the handling of negative externalities, to which the GHG emissions belongs. After that follows the overview of the already implemented policy measures for the reduction of GHG emissions; policy initiatives reducing GHG emissions related to agriculture are highlighted separately. Finally, own empirical analysis of the policy instruments for the reduction of GHG emissions related to agriculture is carried out. The general equilibrium model GTAP und the associated database are used. The production function of the standard GTAP model is modified to allow a substitution between “land” and “fertilizer”, the database is extended by the sector “fertilizer". Impacts of policy measures with explicit pricing on specific GHG emissions related to agriculture, introduced either on the production side or on the consumer side throughout the EU or only in Germany, are examined. The simulation results show that the introduction of unilateral pricing on GHG emissions from the production (or production and application) of fertilizers in Germany or in the EU will have a huge negative impact on sector “fertilizer” and will not lead to a global reduction of GHG emissions. The introduction of a consumption carbon tax on red meat and milk products in Germany or in the EU would result in a slight global emission reduction, but would lead to a significant burden on consumers and producers in the regions concerned.