Transition towards Result-Based Agriculture Sector and Climate Targets
2022
Agita Gancone

Defending
03.08.2022. 14:00, Rīgā, Āzenes ielā 12/1, 115. auditorija

Supervisor
Dagnija Blumberga, Jeļena Pubule

Reviewers
Ainis Lagzdiņš, Ilze Dzene, Stylianos Rozakis

By 2050, the European Union has set the goal of achieving climate neutrality, which is not possible without significant restructuring of industries and the introduction of innovative technologies at the national level. In the agriculture sector, GHG reduction is a major challenge, but at the same time possible with smart, result - based GHG reduction measures. The main aim of the Thesis is to develop an integrative decision-making methodology for GHG emission reduction measures evaluation in the agriculture sector, thus moving towards the result-based agriculture sector and climate neutrality from the perspective of evaluation of climate change mitigation. In order to reach the aims of the Thesis, the following tasks have been set to achieve the goals of the work, to analyze and select environmental and economic performance indicators for the assessment of the eco-efficiency of the agriculture sector using the regression analysis method, select agri-environmental indicators based on a theory-based approach to develop proposals for a modelling framework for policymakers and decision-makers to assess GHG emission reductions in the agriculture sector, carry out a farm-level analysis of the carbon balance for biogas production from maize to assess the overall impact on the environment, ranking bioresources for biogas production and cereal use, evaluating various criteria and using a multi-criteria decision analysis method, prioritize historical and current GHG reduction measures in the agriculture sector based on the Delphi approach, multi-criteria decisions analysis using the TOPSIS method to assess progress towards result-based agriculture and contribute to achievement of climate goals, to develop and propose an integrated decision-making analysis methodology for evaluating climate change mitigation measures and to move towards result-based agriculture sectors and climate goals. The research presents several novel approaches, previously not been used for policy planning to identify the GHG reduction measures in agriculture sector to contribute the achievement of climate goals. The Thesis is designed as a set of publications consisting of six thematically unified scientific publications created during the doctoral program and includes the main GHG emission problems in the agriculture sector. They are published in journals on energy and agriculture and indexed in the international database SCOPUS and Web of Science database. The results of the research can be used for national, local and sectoral level organisations and governmental authorities, stakeholders and scientists. The Thesis consists of an introduction and four parts. The introductory part includes the topicality of the subject, hypothesis, goals, tasks, structure of the work and information about the approbation of the work. The main part of the dissertation provides an insight into the literature used, a description of the methods used to solve the research tasks, as well as a description of the results obtained. At the end of the work, the main conclusions about the research results are emphasized and further steps in research in a specific field are provided.


Keywords
Greenhouse gas emissions, integrative decision-making methodology, climate target, result based - agriculture sector
DOI
10.7250/9789934227950

Gancone, Agita. Transition towards Result-Based Agriculture Sector and Climate Targets. PhD Thesis. Rīga: [RTU], 2022. 164 p.

Publication language
English (en)
The Scientific Library of the Riga Technical University.
E-mail: uzzinas@rtu.lv; Phone: +371 28399196