How Can French Agriculture Contribute to Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions?
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How can French agriculture contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions? Abatement potential and cost of ten technical measures Sylvain Pellerin, Laure Bamière, Denis Angers, Fabrice Béline, Marc Benoit, Jean-Pierre Butault, Claire Chenu, Caroline Colnenne-David, Stéphane de Cara, Nathalie Delame, et al. To cite this version: Sylvain Pellerin, Laure Bamière, Denis Angers, Fabrice Béline, Marc Benoit, et al.. How can French agriculture contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions? Abatement potential and cost of ten technical measures. [Technical Report] 2013. hal-02809908 HAL Id: hal-02809908 https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-02809908 Submitted on 6 Jun 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike| 4.0 International License HOW CAN FRENCH AGRICULTURE CONTRIBUTE TO REDUCING GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS? ABATEMENT POTENTIAL AND COST OF TEN TECHNICAL MEASURES Summary of the study report conducted by INRA on behalf of ADEME, MAAF and MEDDE – July 2013 Membre fondateur de Scientific coordinators: Sylvain Pellerin - INRA, Environment and Agronomy Division (EA), Joint Research Unit for Soil-Plant Transfer and the Nutrient and Trace Element Cycle in Cultivated Ecosystems (TECM) Laure Bamière - INRA, Social Sciences, Agriculture and Food, Rural Development and Environment Division (SAE2), Joint Research Unit for Public Economics Editors: Isabelle Savini and Lénaïc Pardon - INRA, Delegation of Scientific Expertise, Foresight and Advanced Studies (DEPE) Editorial manager: Philippe Chemineau - INRA, Director of the Delegation of Scientific Expertise, Foresight and Advanced Studies (DEPE)1 Contacts: Sylvain Pellerin, Joint Scientific Coordinator for the study: [email protected] Laure Bamière, Joint Scientific Coordinator for the study: [email protected] Bertrand Schmitt, Director of the DEPE: [email protected] This document is the synopsis of the report for a study jointly commissioned by: - the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME), agreement No. 11-60-C0021 and contract No. 1214C0563 - the French Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry (MAAF), agreement No. DGPAAT 20-11-081 - the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy (MEDDE) Data production: French Ministry of Agriculture's Department of Statistics and Forward Studies, Rica France 2010 individual data access and use agreement No. 2012/04, 2006 Cropping practices survey (Arable, Grassland and Viticulture) and 2008 Livestock buildings survey (Cattle, Pigs, Poultry). The content of the report and the summary documents is the sole responsibility of the authors. The study report from which this synopsis is derived was produced by the scientific experts without requiring any prior approval by the commissioning bodies or INRA. The synopsis has been validated by the report's authors. These documents are available on INRA's corporate website (www.inra.fr). To quote this document: Pellerin S., Bamière L., Angers D., Béline F., Benoît M., Butault J.P., Chenu C., Colnenne-David C., De Cara S., Delame N., Doreau M., Dupraz P., Faverdin P., Garcia-Launay F., Hassouna M., Hénault C., Jeuffroy M.H., Klumpp K., Metay A., Moran D., Recous S., Samson E., Savini I., Pardon L., 2013. How can French agriculture contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions? Abatement potential and cost of ten technical measures. Synopsis of the study report, INRA (France), 92 pgs. Graphic design of the cover: Patricia Perrot (MICOM) 1 until 31 May 2013 0 Delegation for Scientific Expertise, Foresight and Advanced Studies (DEPE) How can French agriculture contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions? Abatement potential and cost of ten technical measures Summary of the study report Sylvain Pellerin, Laure Bamière, Denis Angers, Fabrice Béline, Marc Benoît, Jean-Pierre Butault, Claire Chenu, Caroline Colnenne-David, Stéphane De Cara, Nathalie Delame, Michel Doreau, Pierre Dupraz, Philippe Faverdin, Florence Garcia-Launay, Mélynda Hassouna, Catherine Hénault, Marie-Hélène Jeuffroy, Katja Klumpp, Aurélie Metay, Dominic Moran, Sylvie Recous, Elisabeth Samson, Isabelle Savini, Lénaïc Pardon July 2013 1 Contents Foreword Part I – Context and method………………………………………………………………………………………. 5 1. Greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector and their incorporation in "climate" protocols 6 2. The study INRA was tasked with: mechanism, scope, method 9 3. Levers for agricultural greenhouse gas emissions abatement and selection of the measures to be examined 12 4. Assessment of the efficiency of abatement measures 18 Part II – Analysis of the ten technical measures…………………………………………………………………... 25 Reduce the use of synthetic mineral fertilisers, through their more effective use and by making greater use of organic 26 resources, in order to reduce N2O emissions Increase the proportion of legumes in arable crops and temporary grassland, in order to reduce N2O emissions 32 Develop no-till cropping systems to store carbon in soils 37 Introduce more cover crops, vineyard/orchard cover cropping and grass buffer strips in cropping systems in order to store 42 carbon in the soil and limit N2O emissions Develop agroforestry and hedges to promote carbon storage in soil and plant biomass 47 Optimise grassland management to promote carbon storage and reduce N2O emissions 53 Replace carbohydrates with unsaturated fats and use an additive in the diet of ruminants to reduce enteric CH4 emissions 58 Reduce the amount of protein in the diet of livestock to limit the quantity of nitrogen excreted in manure and the associated 63 N2O emissions Develop methanisation and install flares to reduce CH4 emissions related to livestock manure storage 68 Reduce the fossil fuel consumption of agricultural buildings and machinery on the farm to limit direct CO2 emissions 74 Part III – Comparative analysis and 80 conclusion……………………………………………………………………….. 5. Comparative analysis of the ten measures proposed 82 6. Summary and conclusion 91 2 Foreword Now recognised as one of the major factors influencing climate change on our planet, controlling net greenhouse gas (GHG, mainly CO2, N2O and CH42) emissions is a major objective. Limiting emissions from the agricultural sector is difficult, but will become increasingly essential as other GHG-emitting economic sectors gradually manage to reduce their emissions. Conversely, agriculture could make a significant contribution to increasing carbon storage in soil and plant biomass If global reduction targets are achieved in 2050 without any reduction in agricultural emissions, the proportion of the latter in total emissions will increase from 24%3 to over 75% of total levels, whereas agriculture only accounts for a few percent of global GDP. It should be noted that, on a world scale, the increase in population and change in dietary habits is likely to simultaneously lead to an increase in food availability of approximately 70% (FAO 2009). Hence, it is necessary to reduce emissions while at the same time continuing to significantly increase agricultural production. Like several other OECD countries, France has launched an ambitious policy aimed at reducing its emissions: Europe has committed to reducing its emissions by 20% by 2020 compared to levels in 1990, the reference year, while France aims to achieve a 75% reduction by 2050. This drive therefore needs to be reflected in the country's various economic sectors, including the agricultural sector. Nationally, agriculture accounts for around 2% of GDP and around 20% (including energy emissions) of total GHG emissions (CITEPA 2012). But emissions in the agricultural sector are diffuse, in contrast with those in numerous other sectors. N2O, for example, is emitted on almost all cultivated land and all ruminants emit CH4 linked to the digestion of their food. Furthermore, agricultural emissions are not fully known and are prone to significant variations from one site to another or from one farming system to another. Finally, the large number of farms, along with their significant diversity, across the country, complicates both estimation of these emissions and the mechanism that the public authorities could implement to encourage their reduction. A number of countries, such as the USA, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom, have examined measures that could be implemented to limit the GHG emissions of their agricultural sector. These initiatives are supported by scientific studies aimed at gaining a clearer understanding of emission mechanisms and exploring methods that might limit them. They represent very useful references for the French situation. However, they do not reflect the national reality for emissions in France and they do not enable accurate quantification of the reductions hoped for or the cost of the measures leading to these reductions. It is against this background that ADEME (French Agency for the Environment and Energy Control), MAAF (Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry) and MEDDE (Ministry