IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v14y2021i12p3657-d577972.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Role of Agriculture in Climate Change Mitigation—A Polish Example

Author

Listed:
  • Lucjan Pawłowski

    (Faculty of Environmental Engineering, Lublin University of Technology, 20-618 Lublin, Poland)

  • Małgorzata Pawłowska

    (Faculty of Environmental Engineering, Lublin University of Technology, 20-618 Lublin, Poland)

  • Cezary A. Kwiatkowski

    (Department of Herbology and Plant Cultivation Techniques, University of Life Science, 20-033 Lublin, Poland)

  • Elżbieta Harasim

    (Department of Herbology and Plant Cultivation Techniques, University of Life Science, 20-033 Lublin, Poland)

Abstract

Biomass, a basic product of agriculture, is one of the main sinks of carbon in global cycle. Additionally, it can be used as a renewable source of energy, leading to depletion in CO 2 emissions. The paper presents the results of estimations on the current and potential share of catch crop cultivation in climate change mitigation, in Poland, where the agricultural sector plays a significant economic role. The estimation of CO 2 assimilation in biomass was performed on the basis of our own data on yields of commonly used catch crops, obtained in randomly selected 80 farms in Poland, and the content of carbon in the biomass. Calculation of energy potential of the biomass was conducted, assuming its conversion into biogas, on the basis of our own data on catch crop yields and the literature data on their biomethane potentials. The results have shown that catch crops in Poland, which are cultivated to an area of 1.177 mln ha sequestrate 6.85 mln t CO 2 yr −1 . However, considering the total area of fields used for spring crop cultivation, it is possible to increase the sequestration to 18.25 mln t CO 2 yr −1 , which constitutes about 6% of the annual emission of CO 2 in Poland. Biomethane yields per hectare of particular crops ranged from 965 to 1762 m 3 CH 4 ha −1 , and were significantly lower compared to maize, which is commonly in use in biogas plants. However, due to high biomethane potential and favorable chemical composition, catch crops can be a valuable co-substrate for the feedstocks with a high C:N ratio. The potential recovery of energy produced from aboveground biomass of catch crops harvested in Poland during the year is 6327 GWh of electricity and 7230 GWh of thermal energy. Thus, it is advisable to promote catch crops on a wide scale due to substantial environmental benefits of their cultivation.

Suggested Citation

  • Lucjan Pawłowski & Małgorzata Pawłowska & Cezary A. Kwiatkowski & Elżbieta Harasim, 2021. "The Role of Agriculture in Climate Change Mitigation—A Polish Example," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-13, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:12:p:3657-:d:577972
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/12/3657/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/12/3657/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Favero, Alice & Massetti, Emanuele, 2014. "Trade of woody biomass for electricity generation under climate mitigation policy," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 166-190.
    2. Józef Szlachta & Hubert Prask & Małgorzata Fugol & Adam Luberański, 2018. "Effect of Mechanical Pre-Treatment of the Agricultural Substrates on Yield of Biogas and Kinetics of Anaerobic Digestion," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-16, October.
    3. P. Ciais & T. Gasser & J. D. Paris & K. Caldeira & M. R. Raupach & J. G. Canadell & A. Patwardhan & P. Friedlingstein & S. L. Piao & V. Gitz, 2013. "Attributing the increase in atmospheric CO2 to emitters and absorbers," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 3(10), pages 926-930, October.
    4. Stephan Gay & Geertrui Louwagie & Frank Sammeth & Tomas Ratinger & Brechje Marechal & Paolo Prosperi & Ezio Rusco & Jean Terres & Marijn van der Velde & David Baldock & Catherine Bowyer & Tamsin Coope, 2009. "Final Report on the Project 'Sustainable Agriculture and Soil Conservation (SoCo)'," JRC Research Reports JRC51775, Joint Research Centre.
    5. Josep G. Canadell & E. Detlef Schulze, 2014. "Global potential of biospheric carbon management for climate mitigation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-12, December.
    6. Vanessa S. Schulz & Sebastian Munz & Kerstin Stolzenburg & Jens Hartung & Sebastian Weisenburger & Klaus Mastel & Kurt Möller & Wilhelm Claupein & Simone Graeff-Hönninger, 2018. "Biomass and Biogas Yield of Maize ( Zea mays L.) Grown under Artificial Shading," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-17, November.
    7. Andrzej Sałata & Gaetano Pandino & Halina Buczkowska & Sara Lombardo, 2020. "Influence of Catch Crops on Yield and Chemical Composition of Winter Garlic Grown for Bunch Harvesting," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-14, April.
    8. Searchinger, Timothy & Heimlich, Ralph & Houghton, R. A. & Dong, Fengxia & Elobeid, Amani & Fabiosa, Jacinto F. & Tokgoz, Simla & Hayes, Dermot J. & Yu, Hun-Hsiang, 2008. "Use of U.S. Croplands for Biofuels Increases Greenhouse Gases Through Emissions from Land-Use Change," Staff General Research Papers Archive 12881, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. George Halkos, 2022. "New Assessment Methods of Future Conditions for Main Vulnerabilities and Risks from Climate Change," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-5, October.
    2. Cezary A. Kwiatkowski & Małgorzata Pawłowska & Elżbieta Harasim & Lucjan Pawłowski, 2023. "Strategies of Climate Change Mitigation in Agriculture Plant Production—A Critical Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-27, May.
    3. Izabela Samson-Bręk & Marlena Owczuk & Anna Matuszewska & Krzysztof Biernat, 2022. "Environmental Assessment of the Life Cycle of Electricity Generation from Biogas in Polish Conditions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-22, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Van Meerbeek, Koenraad & Muys, Bart & Hermy, Martin, 2019. "Lignocellulosic biomass for bioenergy beyond intensive cropland and forests," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 139-149.
    2. Suopajärvi, Hannu & Umeki, Kentaro & Mousa, Elsayed & Hedayati, Ali & Romar, Henrik & Kemppainen, Antti & Wang, Chuan & Phounglamcheik, Aekjuthon & Tuomikoski, Sari & Norberg, Nicklas & Andefors, Alf , 2018. "Use of biomass in integrated steelmaking – Status quo, future needs and comparison to other low-CO2 steel production technologies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 384-407.
    3. Tonini, Davide & Vadenbo, Carl & Astrup, Thomas Fruergaard, 2017. "Priority of domestic biomass resources for energy: Importance of national environmental targets in a climate perspective," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 295-309.
    4. Lotze-Campen, Hermann & von Witzke, Harald & Noleppa, Steffen & Schwarz, Gerald, 2015. "Science for food, climate protection and welfare: An economic analysis of plant breeding research in Germany," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 79-84.
    5. Iriarte, Alfredo & Rieradevall, Joan & Gabarrell, Xavier, 2012. "Transition towards a more environmentally sustainable biodiesel in South America: The case of Chile," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 263-273.
    6. Knut Einar Rosendahl & Jon Strand, 2011. "Carbon Leakage from the Clean Development Mechanism," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4), pages 27-50.
    7. Efthymios Rodias & Remigio Berruto & Dionysis Bochtis & Alessandro Sopegno & Patrizia Busato, 2019. "Green, Yellow, and Woody Biomass Supply-Chain Management: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-22, August.
    8. Kriegler, Elmar, 2011. "Comment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 594-596, July.
    9. Proost, Stef & Van Dender, Kurt, 2012. "Energy and environment challenges in the transport sector," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 77-87.
    10. repec:fpr:ifprib:2012ghienglish is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Canabarro, N.I. & Silva-Ortiz, P. & Nogueira, L.A.H. & Cantarella, H. & Maciel-Filho, R. & Souza, G.M., 2023. "Sustainability assessment of ethanol and biodiesel production in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Guatemala," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    12. Baral, Nabin & Rabotyagov, Sergey, 2017. "How much are wood-based cellulosic biofuels worth in the Pacific Northwest? Ex-ante and ex-post analysis of local people's willingness to pay," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 99-106.
    13. Baka, Jennifer & Roland-Holst, David, 2009. "Food or fuel? What European farmers can contribute to Europe's transport energy requirements and the Doha Round," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 2505-2513, July.
    14. Nguyen, Thu Lan T. & Hermansen, John E. & Mogensen, Lisbeth, 2010. "Fossil energy and GHG saving potentials of pig farming in the EU," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 2561-2571, May.
    15. Sarah Jansen & William Foster & Gustavo Anríquez & Jorge Ortega, 2021. "Understanding Farm-Level Incentives within the Bioeconomy Framework: Prices, Product Quality, Losses, and Bio-Based Alternatives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-21, January.
    16. Shortall, O.K., 2013. "“Marginal land” for energy crops: Exploring definitions and embedded assumptions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 19-27.
    17. Argueyrolles, Robin & Delzeit, Ruth, 2022. "The interconnections between Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reforms and biofuels," Conference papers 333492, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    18. Aruga, Kentaka, 2011. "非遺伝子組換え大豆とエネルギーの価格関係について [Relationships among the Non-Genetically Modified Soybean and Energy Prices]," MPRA Paper 38186, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 20 Aug 2011.
    19. Oskar Englund & Ioannis Dimitriou & Virginia H. Dale & Keith L. Kline & Blas Mola‐Yudego & Fionnuala Murphy & Burton English & John McGrath & Gerald Busch & Maria Cristina Negri & Mark Brown & Kevin G, 2020. "Multifunctional perennial production systems for bioenergy: performance and progress," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(5), September.
    20. Erik Nelson & Virginia Matzek, 2016. "Carbon Credits Compete Poorly With Agricultural Commodities In An Optimized Model Of Land Use In Northern California," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 7(04), pages 1-24, November.
    21. Forslund, Agneta & Gohin, Alexandre & Le Mouël, Chantal & Levert, Fabrice, 2014. "Biodiesel vs. ethanol, UE vs. US biofuels: So different in terms of LUC impact?," Working Papers 207810, Institut National de la recherche Agronomique (INRA), Departement Sciences Sociales, Agriculture et Alimentation, Espace et Environnement (SAE2).

    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:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:12:p:3657-:d:577972. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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.