Datasets on technological GHG emissions mitigation options for the agriculture sector

The 2030 EU policy framework for climate and energy confirms that all sectors, including agriculture, should contribute to climate stabilisation and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction in the most cost-effective way. Since 2009, the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) analyses the economic impact of GHG mitigation policy options for EU agriculture. However, the lack of precise, integrated and harmonised data on the current and potential uptake, cost-effectiveness and GHG emissions reduction potential of technological (i.e. technical and management based) mitigation options hampers the analysis of the economic impacts of GHG mitigation in agriculture. Against this background, the JRC organised a workshop in Seville on 14th June 2016 which gathered European Commission staff and experts from diverse international institutions aiming to: i) identify current activities conducted by research institutes on the building of datasets for GHG mitigation technologies and their state and development, ii) establish synergies and working mechanisms among the different institutions working on the topic, iii) identify which are the current gaps and limitations of existing datasets and models and, iv) conceive a roadmap to build possible new datasets per mitigation technology. The present report is based on the workshop results and concludes on how to move forward.