IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jagris/v15y2025i3p224-d1572282.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Consumption of Nitrogen Fertilizers in the EU—External Costs of Their Production by Country of Application

Author

Listed:
  • Agnieszka Sobolewska

    (Institute of Economics and Finance, Warsaw University of Life Sciences—SGGW, Nowoursynowska 166, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland)

  • Marcin Bukowski

    (Institute of Economics, University of Applied Sciences in Elbląg, Wojska Polskiego 1, 82-300 Elbląg, Poland)

Abstract

The production of nitrogen fertilizers results in multiple negative environmental impacts. A particularly important aspect is its energy consumption. Analyses covering the product’s life cycle indicate that the greatest environmental harm is generated at the stage of production due to the resulting nitrogen dioxide emissions. The aim of this study was to assess the economic value of the environmental harm caused by the production of the nitrogen fertilizers used in EU farming. The assessment of the environmental damage resulting from the production of mineral nitrogen fertilizers was conducted through a life cycle assessment (LCA). A ‘gate-to-gate’ approach was applied using Sima Pro 7.1.0.2 software, with the ecoinvent 3 and agri-footprint 5 databases. The value of the external costs for the production of nitrogen fertilizers was determined by applying the environmental prices method. The analysis conducted covered the years 2012–2021. The results indicated a decrease in the environmental damage caused by the production of mineral nitrogen fertilizers used in EU agriculture. There was considerable disparity between individual EU member countries, both in terms of trends concerning the amounts of applied nitrogen fertilizer and the efficacy of their use. In the years 2012–2021 in 18 EU countries, the amount of mineral nitrogen fertilizers used in farming grew, with the greatest increases in Romania, Spain, and Hungary, whereas in 9 countries, their use dropped, with the greatest decreases recorded in Germany, France, and Poland. Marked differences were also found in the efficacy of the use of mineral nitrogen fertilizers, as measured based on the value of the environmental harm caused by the production of the applied fertilizers in relation to the value of the field crop produced.

Suggested Citation

  • Agnieszka Sobolewska & Marcin Bukowski, 2025. "Consumption of Nitrogen Fertilizers in the EU—External Costs of Their Production by Country of Application," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-18, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:15:y:2025:i:3:p:224-:d:1572282
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/3/224/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/3/224/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:15:y:2025:i:3:p:224-:d:1572282. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.