Cost-effective N2O, CH4 and NH3 abatement in European agriculture: interrelations between global warming and acidification policies

In Europe agriculture is an important contributor to emissions of the acidifying compound ammonia (NH3) and the greenhouse gases nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4). Measures to reduce one of these gases may also have an impact on emissions of the others. This study investigates the effects of control options for NH3, N2O, and CH4 that are available for the European agriculture on the emissions of all three gases. We found that NH3 abatement in the European agriculture may have an adverse effect on N2O emissions while abatement of N2O results in a net decrease in emissions of NH3. Reductions in CH4 emissions slightly increase in N2O emissions. An optimisation analysis for the Dutch agriculture shows that a shift to other NH3 abatement options is possible to avoid the increase in N2O emissions, but at considerable costs. If N2O control options are available, it may be more costeffective to apply these options to reduce the N2O emissions to the initial level. Brink, Hordijk, Van Ierland, and Kroeze