Swiss Agricultural Policy and its Impact on Greenhouse-Gas Emissions from Agriculture

Every two years, the Biennial Transparency Report (BTR) highlights advances in climate mitigation and climate adaptation. Agricultural policy developments and their implications for agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are a key topic.

Thanks to enhanced productivity in animal production and advances in nitrogen efficiency, emissions of methane and nitrous oxide from animal husbandry and fertiliser management in Switzerland have fallen by around 14 per cent since 1990. The Proof of Ecological Performance and other policy instruments within the framework of direct payments have contributed to reducing emissions.

With the ‘Climate Strategy Agriculture and Food 2050’ of September 2023, the Swiss Confederation has set itself the target of reducing GHG emissions from domestic agricultural production by at least 40 per cent vis-à-vis 1990 by the year 2050. At the same time, it aims to reduce the per capita greenhouse gas footprint of food by two-thirds as compared to 2020. To achieve both objectives, the current policy instruments must be strengthened. In addition, the nutrient reduction pathway, the reporting requirement for nutrient deliveries and structural improvement measures are meant to contribute to the achievement of these objectives. Lastly, the Climate Strategy Agriculture and Food Action Plan defines additional supportive activities.

On the basis of current and planned policy measures and the currently foreseeable economic framework conditions, projections for the future evolution of GHG emissions up to 2050 were produced (see figure). With the policy measures currently being implemented, a further reduction of 4 per cent by 2030 is expected (WEM). Although this emissions trend shows progress vis-à-vis the reference scenario without further development of agricultural policy since 2011 (WOM), there is a significant gap vis-à-vis the anticipated reduction pathway of the climate strategy. Consequently, further GHG reduction measures are needed in order to achieve the set targets. The currently available technical potentials on the production side are largely exhausted by the current policy instruments, difficult to implement or likely to be associated with high costs.Thus, measures on the consumption side will play a key role in future. The 40 per cent reduction target in Switzerland could be achieved by switching to a healthy, resource-conserving diet. Animal production would be reduced in favour of plant production (WAM, minus 30 per cent of livestock units).

Given that many influencing factors are difficult to predict, projections for the development of agricultural production and the associated GHG emissions should be considered with caution, even if the relative differences between the individual scenarios are fairly robust. Furthermore, it must be borne in mind that the agricultural scenarios in the BTR only concern the agricultural sector in the strict sense, and hence that various GHG sources and sinks associated with agriculture are considered elsewhere, if at all.