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Fewer pesticides mean more CO2
Dec. 3, 2008
The study, conducted by Carlton Consultancy, said that the removal of a raft of pesticides would stifle crop yields, bring more land into production and cost taxpayers billions of pounds.
“Pasture and woodland are the most likely sources of new land and it is well established that land use change from either pasture or woodland to arable land results in significant losses of soil organic carbon plus carbon emissions from cleared vegetation,” said the study.
The study found that crop shortfalls of between 5 per cent and 30 per cent would result in increased emissions of between 670 million tons of CO2 equivalents and 5.46 billion tons CO2 equivalents as new land came into production.
It is estimated the cost mitigating these emissions would be between ￡1.5 and ￡12 billion, not to mention damage to the EU’s commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 (based on 1990 levels), it said.
Author of the study, Rob Carlton, has sent his conclusions to Defra to help persuade minsters to drop potentially damaging parts of the pesticides proposals when EU agriculture ministers discuss the matter later this month.
Source: Farmers Guardian
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