The Edinburgh Declaration on Reactive Nitrogen
The Edinburgh Declaration can be downloaded as a PDF here.
For international colleaugues, here is a Spanish translation (courtesy of Luis Lassaletta et al.) and a German translation (courtesy of Ulrich Daemmgen), with many thanks to our colleagues for providing these versions.
| 1. The participants of the international conference ‘Nitrogen and Global Change’, held in Edinburgh, Scotland, on April 11th to 14th, 2011, hosted by the European Centre of the International Nitrogen Initiative, jointly with the Task Force on Reactive Nitrogen of the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, the NitroEurope Integrated Project of the European Commission’s 6th Framework Programme, the Nitrogen in Europe networking programme of the European Science Foundation and COST Action 729, | 12. RECOGNIZE that there is a variety of options available ranging from technical and management measures to reduce polluting emissions from agriculture, industry and transport, to personal choices on food consumption, transportation and energy use; personal choices can substantially reduce our nitrogen-footprint, |
| 2. WELCOME the first European Nitrogen Assessment (ENA) which was launched to an audience of 350 representatives of science, policy, industry and non-governmental organizations, | 13. ACKNOWLEDGE that European agriculture is a major source of nitrogen pollution, but at the same time nitrogen is a key element in food production; the coherence between European agricultural policies and environmental policies could be improved to achieve a responsible and efficient use of nitrogen inputs, |
| 3. NOTE that the ENA reviews current scientific understanding on the benefits of reactive nitrogen use and the threats of nitrogen pollution in Europe and beyond, including negative impacts on human health, climate and biodiversity, water, soil and air quality, identifies the geographical areas at greatest risk of damage by nitrogen pollution, and provides options for improved nitrogen management in the future, | 14. TAKE NOTE of the principles of the Barsac Declaration on “Environmental Sustainability and the Demitarian Diet”, where the demitarian option is based on choosing meals containing half the typical amount of meat while still meeting nutritional requirements, and |
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4. 4. ACKNOWLEDGE that in large areas of the world, especially in developing countries, the availability of nitrogen in agriculture is insufficient to attain adequate crop yields and is one of the causes of malnutrition, whereas Europe is an area of intensive release of nitrogen into the environment,
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15. RECORD that the serving of a demitarian menu during the Edinburgh conference was welcomed by the delegates and fully satisfied their appetite, |
| 5. NOTE that the ENA estimates that power generation, transport, industry, waste management and agriculture presently produce about 15 million tonnes of reactive nitrogen per year to air, water and soils in the European Union, which is about three times the total production rate around 1900, | 16. ACKNOWLEDGE that around one third of the European food production is not consumed, but is wasted in retail, supermarkets, catering and households, pointing to further simple options to reduce our nitrogen footprint, |
| 6. RECOGNIZE that reactive nitrogen released to the environment cascades through a series of different chemical forms (NOx, NH3, N2O, nitrate, organic nitrogen) before eventual conversion back to unreactive di-nitrogen (N2), while a substantial proportion of reactive nitrogen remains in the global biosphere, perturbing several vital ecosystem functions and services such as biodiversity, water regulation, climate regulation, food security, for decades to come, | 17. RECOGNIZE that food industry, retail, and catering are key sectors for decreasing the waste of food and improving nitrogen management in the food chain, |
| 7. NOTE that the societal costs of all forms of nitrogen pollution have been estimated by the ENA in economic terms at €70 billion to €320 billion per year across the European Union; these costs represent a substantial offset of the economic benefits of deliberate reactive nitrogen production for food, energy and manufactured products, | 18. NOTE that the ENA was received as a model for future nitrogen assessments for other continents and the globe, and that improvement of nitrogen management requires global action in view of the global trade in food, feed and fertilizer commodities, |
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8. NOTE that over half of the estimated damage cost is associated with impacts of reactive nitrogen on human health, in addition to significant impacts on ecosystems and climate, |
19. AGREE that the estimated health damage by nitrogen air pollution, contributing to significant reductions in average lifetime of European citizens, confirms the continued need to reduce these emissions, |
| 9. ACKNOWLEDGE the importance of reducing reactive nitrogen emissions to the environment, that there are many options for reducing emissions where the benefits for society clearly outweigh the costs of taking action to reduce these emissions, | 20. NOTE that successful examples for abatement have been seen in power plants, industry and transport, except for some underachievement for Diesel vehicles, but little improvement has been seen in the agriculture sector, although substantial progress has been made in selected countries; due to the significant emissions from that sector, a specific focus on agriculture is needed, |
| 10. RECOGNIZE the need to make the links associated with nitrogen between different international conventions including the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, the UNECE Water Convention, Oslo and Paris Commission, the Helsinki Commission, and European directives, and that nitrogen plays a key role in the issues addressed by these international treaties and policy instruments, | 21. AGREE that a particular challenge relates to market distortions, which may be caused by not considering external societal costs in the agricultural system; markets need to recognize the role of farmers as the producers of high quality food products while integrating the need to reduce adverse environmental effec |
| 11. ACKNOWLEDGE that further communication, education and awareness raising of the nitrogen problem to industry, farmers, retail, policy makers and society at large is required for increasing insight into and support for the options to reduce the impacts of nitrogen pollution, |
22. AGREE that the conversion of reactive nitrogen back to un-reactive nitrogen can be a way to remove unwanted reactive nitrogen compounds from the environment; at the same time, this process is a waste of the substantial energy resources put into making reactive nitrogen, and that an increasing focus is needed to re-use available reactive nitrogen; |
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23. AGREE that an overall strategy to reduce the losses and adverse impacts of
reactive nitrogen on society should be focused on improving nitrogen use efficiency, particularly in agriculture, which can provide significant financial benefits to farmers and society as a whole. |
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14 April, 2011, Edinburgh.
The Edinburgh Declaration can be downloaded as a PDF here.