CAN ORGANIC FARMING HELP TO REDUCE NATIONAL ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND EMISSIONS OF GREENHOUSE GASSES IN DENMARK? - Economics of Sustainable Energy in Agriculture - page 180

combustion of fossil energy leads to classical pollution via compounds of
sulphur and nitrogen, which damage the environment via acidification,
eutrophication etc. (Illerup et al. 1999). Finally, combustion results in
emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide This gas is
responsible for most of the anthopogenic changes in the earth-atmosphere
energy balance, which may lead to global climate changes (IPCC 1997).
As a result of the Rio-conference in 1992 and the Kyoto Protocol
in 1997, industrialised countries are committed to reduce their greenhouse
gas emissions. Here not only carbon dioxide from energy use counts but
also nitrous oxide and methane, which to a large extent are of organic
origin. One method to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to change
agricultural production. In Denmark, the agricultural sector currently is
responsible for about 12% of the total contribution to the greenhouse effect
(Fenger et al. 1990), and changes in agricultural greenhouse gas emissions
therefore matters. Farm level studies have identified large potentials for
reductions of the fossil energy use from conversion to organic farming
(Dalgaard et al. 2001). However, there are no well-described national level
methods to calculate consequences for energy use and greenhouse gas
emissions following conversion to organic farming (Halberg et al. 2000).
Moreover, the existing reference manuals for calculation of national
emissions of greenhouse gases (IPCC 1997, 2000) give some guidelines,
but do not distinguish from agriculture from emissions from
other sectors, and cannot be readily adapted to investigate scenarios for
changes in agricultural production systems. However, the reference
manuals can more readily be used for the calculation of emissions of the
two other important greenhouse gases relating to agricultural production;
nitrous oxide and methane
The present chapter focuses on national scenario calculations of
energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions based on agronomic
model calculations. However, the results must be seen in a broader
sustainability context, and can for instance be combined with economic
calculations where the costs and benefits in relation to these externalities
are estimated. The possibilities for such inter-disciplinary interactions are
discussed at the end of this chapter.
2. MATERIALS AND METHODS
2.1 Scenarios for 100% conversion to organic farming in
Denmark
In 1998, the Danish Government requested an inter-disciplinary review of
the consequences of phasing out pesticides. One of the resulting reports