IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v11y2020i1d10.1038_s41467-020-18196-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Societal benefits of halving agricultural ammonia emissions in China far exceed the abatement costs

Author

Listed:
  • Xiuming Zhang

    (The University of Melbourne)

  • Baojing Gu

    (Zhejiang University)

  • Hans Grinsven

    (PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency)

  • Shu Kee Lam

    (The University of Melbourne)

  • Xia Liang

    (The University of Melbourne)

  • Mei Bai

    (The University of Melbourne)

  • Deli Chen

    (The University of Melbourne)

Abstract

Mitigating agricultural ammonia (NH3) emissions in China is urgently needed to avoid further damage to human and ecosystem health. Effective and feasible mitigation strategies hinge on integrated knowledge of the mitigation potential of NH3 emissions and the associated economic costs and societal benefits. Here we present a comprehensive analysis of marginal abatement costs and societal benefits for NH3 mitigation in China. The technical mitigation potential of agricultural NH3 emissions is 38–67% (4.0–7.1 Tg N) with implementation costs estimated at US$ 6–11 billion. These costs are much lower than estimates of the overall societal benefits at US$ 18–42 billion. Avoiding unnecessary fertilizer use and protein-rich animal feed could provide 30% of this mitigation potential without additional abatement costs or decreases in agricultural productivity. Optimizing human diets with less animal-derived products offers further potential for NH3 reduction of 12% by 2050.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiuming Zhang & Baojing Gu & Hans Grinsven & Shu Kee Lam & Xia Liang & Mei Bai & Deli Chen, 2020. "Societal benefits of halving agricultural ammonia emissions in China far exceed the abatement costs," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-18196-z
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18196-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18196-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-020-18196-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Xinxin Song & Huanhuan Pu & Yingying Zhang & Xuguang Liu & Yongqiang Zhao, 2023. "Characteristics of nitrogen flow and environmental cost of reactive nitrogen in the source area of the Yellow River Basin, China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(11), pages 13379-13397, November.
    2. Fu, Zhaopeng & Zhang, Ke & Zhang, Jiayi & Zhang, Yu & Cao, Qiang & Tian, Yongchao & Zhu, Yan & Cao, Weixing & Liu, Xiaojun, 2023. "Optimizing nitrogen application and sowing date can improve environmental sustainability and economic benefit in wheat-rice rotation," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    3. Feng, Tong & Sun, Yuechi & Shi, Yating & Ma, Jie & Feng, Chunmei & Chen, Zhenni, 2024. "Air pollution control policies and impacts: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    4. Wan, Xuejie & Wu, Wei & Liao, Yuncheng, 2021. "Mitigating ammonia volatilization and increasing nitrogen use efficiency through appropriate nitrogen management under supplemental irrigation and rain–fed condition in winter wheat," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    5. Himics, Mihaly & Giannakis, Elias & Kushta, Jonilda & Hristov, Jordan & Sahoo, Amarendra & Perez-Dominguez, Ignacio, 2022. "Co-benefits of a flexitarian diet for air quality and human health in Europe," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-18196-z. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.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.