Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) | Source | Report |
This OECD report assesses environmental trends across member countries from 1990 to 2023, tracking progress in decoupling agricultural production from its environmental impact. Agricultural output grew by 33% while cultivated area contracted by 11%, reflecting meaningful efficiency gains, and GHG emission intensity per unit of output declined by 20%—from 1.6 to 1.25 kg COâ‚‚e per USD—with some countries achieving absolute decoupling since 2018. However, the annual rate of improvement has slowed sharply from 1.2% to 0.4% per year, and absolute GHG levels remain broadly stable, indicating that efficiency gains alone are insufficient to meet net-zero commitments. Progress on nutrient management is similarly mixed: nitrogen and phosphorus fertiliser use has declined at 0.24% and 0.53% per year, respectively, yet nutrient use efficiency plateaued in the mid-2010s. Ammonia emissions decreased in 24 OECD countries but increased in 10. Biodiversity trends are also concerning, with farmland bird populations declining in 22 of 27 reporting countries between 2013 and 2023. The report identifies several specific areas requiring more targeted policy action: improving nutrient use efficiency through tighter fertiliser regulations and precision application support; extending agri-environmental schemes to halt and reverse farmland biodiversity loss; and setting measurable GHG reduction targets for agriculture within national climate strategies to close the gap between efficiency improvements and absolute emission reductions. The findings underscore that further decoupling will require policy packages that simultaneously address emissions, nutrient management, and biodiversity—rather than treating each as a separate regulatory concern.
