Lessons learned and future directions of OECD workon agri-environmental indicators

Kevin Parris, Agricultural Policies and Environment Division, OECD,

Paris, France

Presentation to the Joint Task Force on Environmental Indicators, UNECE

Committee on Environmental Policy, Geneva, Switzerland, 31 October, 2012

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OECD AND ITS GLOBAL PARTNERS

Membership has expanded over OECD’s 50 year history to embrace 34 countries and the European Union:

AustraliaAustriaBelgiumCanadaChileCzech RepublicDenmark

EstoniaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIceland

IrelandIsraelItalyJapanKoreaLuxembourgMexico

NetherlandsNew Zealand NorwayPolandSloveniaPortugalSlovak Republic

SpainSweden Switzerland TurkeyUnited KingdomUnited States

OECD is currently in accession talks with: Russia

and enhanced engagement with: Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, South Africa

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1993 – 2001

Environmental Indicators for Agriculture: Volumes 1, 2, and 3

2001 – 2011

7 Expert Meetings: Biodiversity, Landscapes, Soil Organic Carbon, Soil Erosion/Biodiversity, Land Conservation, Farm Management, and Water Use and Water Quality

Washington, D.C., United States, Workshop (2007)

Environmental Performance of Agriculture in OECD Countries since 1990, summary At A Glance and Electronic Database (2008)

Leysin, Switzerland Workshop (March,2010)

Zaragoza, Spain, Workshop on Water Information Systems (May 2010)

Working with OECD countries (e.g. Canada, Israel, Korea, Poland)

OECD Work on Agri-environmental Indicators (AEIs): Past and Present

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Policy and market drivers impacting on env. performance of agriculture

Agricultural production, land use, organic farming and transgenic crops

Nutrients: nitrogen and phosphorus balances

Pesticides sales

Energy: on-farm energy consumption, biofuel production (agric. feedstocks)

Soil – water and wind erosion

Water resources: withdrawals, irrigated area and water application rates

Water quality: nitrates, phosphorus and pesticides

Ammonia emissions: acidification and eutrophication

Greenhouse gas emissions: climate change

Methyl bromide use: ozone depletion

Biodiversity: farmland bird populations and agricultural land cover

Coverage of OECD agri-environmental indicators

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1. Describes driving forces, current state and trends of environmental conditions in agriculture

2. Highlights where ‘hot spots’ are emerging

3. Provides a tool to better explain the causes and effects of changes in environment

4. Compares trends in performance across countries and in relation to environment targets

5. Establishes a database for policy analysis: monitoring, evaluation and projection scenarios

Value of set of agri-environmental indicators

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1. Definitions and methodologies for calculating indicators

2. Data availability, quality, comparability, and spatial aggregation

3. Trends and ranges relative to absolute levels

4. Agriculture’s contribution to env. impacts

5. Indicator baselines, threshold levels and targets

6. Time lags, often environmental outcomes can take a long time to appear (phosphorus -- groundwater)

7. AEIs in physical units, but if measured in monetary terms would be a common unit

AEI limitations and areas to be developed

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1. Work on establishing AEIs is relatively recent compared to other economic and social indicators

2. Complexity of trying to encapsulate very diverse biophysical and economic conditions

3. Many of the caveats and limitations to the AEIs apply to other socio-economic indicators (e.g. inflation rate, unemployment), but the biophysical element is key difference

4. Indicators are only part of policy analyst toolbox, not whole story

Viewing AEIs in a broader context

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Clear mandate from OECD Agriculture Ministerial meeting (Feb 2010) to focus more on agriculture and environment

Preparing 2nd edition of OECD Compendium of Agri-environmental indicators (forthcoming early 2013)

Greater use of AEIs in OECD policy analysis: climate change; water; agriculture and environment Outlooks; and country economic surveys and env. performance reviews

Fostering closer cooperation with Member countries, new (Chile, Estonia, Israel, Slovenia) and old (Canada, Korea)

Strengthening cooperation with International Organisations, (Eurostat, FAO, UNECE); agro-food chain; research community

Future Directions for OECD work on AEIs

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AEIs are primarily to reveal the environmental performance of agriculture and provide one tool for policy monitoring, evaluation and outlook scenarios

Balance needed between simplicity and timeliness (policy advisors, public) and robustness (scientific soundness)

Challenge of budget constraints for new data collection and evaluation initiatives

National indicators mask pressure points spatially, but also consider issue of leading economic indicators

Thinking beyond pressure, state or response framework toward green growth indicators

Key OECD wide AEI messages and challenges

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Gross nitrogen balance

UNECE: The balance between all nitrogen added to an agricultural system and nitrogen removed from the system (kg/year/hectare)

Phosphorus balance ?

Main elements in the gross nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) balance calculation

Nutrient inputs (A)

Volatilisation and denitrification (1)

Inorganicfertilisers

Livestockmanure

Biologicalnitrogen

fixation (1)

Atmosphericdeposition

Primary agricultural system

Nutrient outputs (B)

Nutrient balance

Potential transfer of nutrientsinto (2):- Soil- Water- Air (1)

Arable andpermanent crops

Fodder cropsand pasture

Figure 1. The main elements in the OECD gross nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorous)balance calculation

(A – B)

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Water use intensity by agriculture

UNECE indicator presented as:

(i) Total irrigable area.

(ii) Irrigable area by type of crops grown with the aid of full or supplementary irrigation. (?)

(iii) Share of irrigable area in the total utilized agricultural area.

Water use intensity by agriculture

1990-923 1998-004 2008-105 1990-92 to 1998-00

1998-00 to 2008-10

New Zealand 4.1 4.3 1.4Korea 14.3 17.6 18.2 2.7 0.7Japan 20.6 21.5 21.6 0.4 0.1Denmark 0.9 0.4 0.4 -15.0 0.0Italy -- 7.7 7.6 -- -0.1

Spain 7.0 6.5 6.3 -1.0 -0.4Israel 5.2 6.6 6.2 3.0 -0.6

Greece 6.3 6.1 5.8 -0.3 -0.7Turkey 8.6 11.4 10.3 3.6 -1.1United States 9.1 8.4 7.7 -0.8 -1.7Mexico 11.4 12.2 10.7 1.5 -1.7France 3.3 3.1 2.6 -0.6 -2.2Chile 18.1 15.2 -2.4Portugal 10.4 10.4 7.3 0.0 -3.8

Australia5 8.7 4.9 3.7 -13.2 -4.1

Irrigation water application rates2 Average annual % change

Megalitres per hectare of irrigated land

% per annum

-5.0 -3.0 -1.0 1.0

1990-92 to 1998-00

1998-00 to 2008-10

-13.2%//

-15%//

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Cropping and livestock patterns

UNECE presented as:

(i) Total area of the major agricultural land uses (arable, permanent grassland and permanent crops).

(ii) Trends in the share of major agricultural land uses in total utilized agricultural area.

(iii) Livestock numbers of major livestock types (cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and poultry).

(iv) Trends in the share of the major livestock types.

Indicators iii + iv in nutrient balance, but necessary on their own?

Visit the OECD website:Agri-environmental indicators: www.oecd.org/tad/env/indicators

Contact: Kevin.Parris@oecd.org