Nitrogen: 'Too much of a good thing'
Nitrogen pollution costs the European Union between €70 billion and €320 billion per year. This cost is more than double the value that nitrogen fertilizers are estimated to add to European farm income.
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Integrated approach needed
Reducing nitrogen emissions is a central environmental challenge for the twenty-first century. Policies should address farming, meat consumption, use of human sewage and fossil-fuel burning. The Gothenburg Protocol, a policy that aims to reduce energy consumption and fossil-fuel burning, is an opportunity to further reduce emissions. Together with other policies, for example on manure application and livestock number reduction, these have led to a modest drop in European nitrogen pollution. However, existing policies are fragmented. A global inter-convention nitrogen protocol is needed.
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| Author(s) | Mark A. Sutton, Oene Oenema, Jan Willem Erisman, Adrian Leip, Hans van Grinsven & Wilfried Winiwarter |
| Publication date | 14-04-2011 |
| Publication | Nature 472, pp 159–161 |
