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Rusu, T., Moraru, P. I., Bogdan, I., Pop, A., Coste, C., Marin, D. I., et al. (2013). Impacts of climate change on agricultural technology management in the Transylvanian Plain, Romania. Scientific Papers, Series A. Agronomy, Lvi, 113–118.
Abstract: The Transylvanian Plain, Romania is an important region for agronomic productivity. However, limited soils data and adoption of best management practices hinder land productivity. Soil temperatures of the Transylvanian Plain were evaluated using a set of twenty datalogging stations positioned throughout the plain. Each station stores electronic data of ground temperature on 3 different levels of depth (10, 30 and 50 cm), of soil humidity at a depth of 10 cm, of the air temperature at 1 meter and of precipitation. Monitoring the thermal and hydric regime of the area is essential in order to identify and implement sets of measures of adjustment to the impact of climatic changes. After analyzing the recorded data, thermic and hydric, in the Transylvanian Plain, we recommend as optimal sowing period, advancing those known in the literature, with 5 days for corn and soybeans, and maintaining the same optimum period for sunflower and sugar beet. Water requirements are provided in an optimum, of 58.8 to 62.1% for the spring weeding crops during the growing season, thus irrigation is necessary to ensure optimum production potential. The amount of biological active degrees registered in Transylvanian Plain shows the necessity to reconstruct crop zoning, known in the literature, for the analyzed crops: wheat, corn, soy, sunflower and sugar beet.
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Shrestha, S., Ciaian, P., Himics, M., & van Doorslaer, B. (2013). Impacts of climate change on EU agriculture. Review of Agricultural and Applied Economics, 16(2), 24–39.
Abstract: The current paper investigates the medium term economic impact of climate changes on the EU agriculture. The yield change data under climate change scenarios are taken from the BIOMA (Biophysical Models Application) simulation environment. We employ CAPRI modelling framework to identify the EU aggregate economic effects as well as regional impacts. We take into account supply and market price adjustments of the EU agricultural sector as well as technical adaptation of crops to climate change. Overall results indicate an increase in yields and production level in the EU agricultural sector due to the climate change. In general, there are relatively small effects at the EU aggregate. For example, the value of land use and welfare change by approximately between -2% and 0.2%. However, there is a stronger impact at regional level with some stronger effects prevailing particularly in the Central and Northern EU and smaller impacts are observed in Southern Europe. Regional impacts of climate change vary by a factor higher up to 10 relative to the aggregate EU impacts. The price adjustments reduce the response of agricultural sector to climate change in particular with respect to production and income changes. The technical adaption of crops to climate change may result in a change production and land use by a factor between 1.4 and 6 relative to no-adaptation situation.
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Lotze-Campen, H. (2013). Bevölkerungswachstum und Ressourcenknappheit. AMOSinternational, 7(1), 13–19.
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Jayet, P., & Petsakos, A. (2013). Evaluating the efficiency of a uniform N-input tax under different policy scenarios at different scales. Environmental Modelling & Assessment, 18(1), 57–72.
Abstract: Nitrate pollution from agriculture is an important environmental externality, caused by the excessive use of fertilizers. The internalization of this problem, via a tax on mineral nitrogen, could lead to a second best solution, reducing nitrate emissions. Several authors suggest that a reduction in agricultural support could produce similar results. In this paper, we examine the effects of different levels of a uniformly implemented nitrogen tax in France under two policy scenarios, corresponding to post Agenda 2000 and 2003 Luxembourg reforms of European Union ’ s Common Agricultural Policy, in order to reveal the synergies and conflicts between the tax and the policy scenarios in terms of nitrate emissions abatement. The analysis is performed at different geographical scales, from the national to the regional and is based on a bioeconomic approach that involves the coupling of the economic model AROPAj with the crop model STICS. Results show that the efficiency of the N-tax varies according to the geographical scale of the analysis and the type of farming. Furthermore, we prove that a uniform implementation may lead to perverse effects that should always be taken into account when introducing second-best instruments.
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Helming, K., Diehl, K., Geneletti, D., & Wiggering, H. (2013). Mainstreaming ecosystem services in European policy impact assessment. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 40, 82–87.
Abstract: The concept of ecosystem services as developed for the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) is currently the most extensive, international, scientific concept dealing with the interaction between the world’s ecosystems and human well-being. The fundamental asset is seen in the relevancy of the concept at the science–policy interface. Albeit, the mainstreaming of ecosystem services into policy making requires a framework that allows the transition of the scientific concept into the rationale of policy making. We hypothesize that the procedure of policy impact assessment is a suitable venue for this transition. This brings up two questions: 1) where in the process of policy impact assessment can ecosystem services be mainstreamed? 2) How can the impact on ecosystem services properly be accounted for? In this paper we distinguish two groups of policy cases: explicit cases directly addressing ecosystem services, and implicit cases of policies that follow other purposes but may have unintended impacts on ecosystem services as a side effect. The second group covers a wide range of policies for which we set out a framework for mainstreaming of ecosystem services. The framework is exemplary designed for the instrument of ex-ante impact assessment at European policy making level. We reveal that the two concepts of the MA and of the European policy impact assessment are indeed compatible, which makes the integration of the ecosystem service concept possible. We conclude that the linkage of the scientifically validated concept of ecosystem services with the policy concept of impact assessment has the potential of improving the credibility of the latter.
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