Book of Abstracts
11th IFOAM
Scientific Conference
11-15 August 1996
Copenhagen, Denmark
Abstract front
page
Subject index
Athor index
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Symposia
Sustainability - The Role of Organic Agriculture W24
Spangenberg, Joachim H.
Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, D-42103 Wuppertal |
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| The study 227 »Towards Sustainable Europe«
aims at quantifying sustainability targets for Europe. Its basic methodology is the
environmental space concept, providing an input-based assessment of the maximum
permittable use of energy and raw materials as well as qualitative cirteria for land use.
Furthermore, the environmental space concept includes assuming an equitable distribution
of resource use throughout the world, i.e. postulating a kind of human right to resource
use. For energy, based on the IPCC recommondations, a reduction of 50% primary energy use
by the year 2050 is considered necessary, including a fourfold increase the use of
renewables. For material flows, according to our own calculations, an average reduction of
80-90% is needed in Europe. In agriculture, both for energy use and material flow
reductions organic agriculture could be a first step to implement these targets. However,
additional research is needed to identify measures for optimising organic farming in terms
of material flow reduction. From the material flow calculation, we come to a reduction
need of 81% for nitrogen fertiliser, 80% for P2O5 and 92% for K2O fertiliser. Although
these are no unchangable figures (substitution is permitted), the impossibility to
continue with the status quo is overwhelming. For land use no quantitative indicators can
be defined. Instead we identified main stresses and counter-measures: 1) loss of
biodiversity: dedicate 10% of all biotopes for nature protection. Introduce 100% organic
farming and sustainable forestry. 2) loss of micro-nutriens: reduce speed of ground water
flow. 3) land import: reduce import surplus in agricultural commodities 50% by 2010 to
permit for self-supply in other continents. Organic farming is not yet sustainable. It
must be further analysed to identify potentials to: 1) reduce energy use and material
flows 2) maximise contributions to energy and raw material supply 3) slow down underground
water flows and thus nutrient losses. 4) reduce the total reduction in yield from in
average 30% today to about 10% by applying modern breeding technologies. Spangenberg,
Joachim H. (Ed.) (1996), Towards Sustainable Europe, A Study from the Wuppertal Institute
for Friends of the Earth Europe, 2nd Edition, Wuppertal 1996
Lehmann, H., Reetz, T. (1994), Sustainable Land Use Patterns for Europe, Wuppertal
Paper 26 Ripl, W., Hildmann, Ch. (1994), Wasserhaushalt und Basenverlust aus der
Landschaft: Ein zentrales okologisches Problem. In: Jahrbuch Okologie, Beck, Munchen, p.
129 - 138 |