Optimal design of climate change policies through the EU's rural development policy : Final Report

• Main Authors: Tzilivakis, John, Lewis, Kathleen, Green, Andrew, Warner, Douglas, Fialkiewicz, W., Olearczyk, Dorota, Bordet, Charlotte, Langevin, Brigitte
• Other Authors: School of Life and Medical Sciences, Department of Human and Environmental Sciences, Health & Human Sciences Research Institute, Geography, Environment and Agriculture, Agriculture and Environment Research Unit, Agriculture, Food and Veterinary Sciences
• Language: English
• Published: European Commission 2013
• Subjects: rural; climate change; agriculture; greenhouse gas emissions; adaptation; policy; ecosystem services; ACIA
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2299/10479

In 2013 the current Rural Development Programme (RDP) comes to an end and consequently consultations have been initiated to develop the programme post-2013. This presents an opportunity to develop more holistic RDP measures and operations that not only tackle rural issues, but also address the climate change objectives of mitigation and adaptation. In response to this opportunity, the European Commission (DG CLIMA) commissioned a study on "Optimal design of climate change policies through the EU's rural development policy" (Project ref. 071201/2011/609681/SER/CLIMA.A.2) which is also known as OSCAR: Optimal Strategies for Climate change Action in Rural areas. The work was undertaken by the Agriculture and Environment Research Unit (AERU) at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK, in collaboration with Solagro in France and Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences in Poland. The work started on 21 December 2011 and finished on 21 December 2012. The aim of the project was to develop guidance for Member States to support the development of RDP measures that optimally address climate change objectives post-2013.Presented herein is the final report for the OSCAR project. This report provides a comprehensive description of the approach taken, methods employed, data utilised and the outputs that have emerged. This report has an accompanying appendices document, containing appendices A to M, which contain much of technical details. The work involved a number of key tasks including:·The development of the conceptual framework to assess the climate change impacts of rural development measures and operations. This included a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) based approach to assessing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and carbon sequestration, the development of a completely new technique to assess the impacts on the adaptive capacity of ecosystem services, known as an Adaptive Capacity Impact Assessment (ACIA), and a Production Impact Assessment (PIA) to account for impacts on land use enterprises.·The use of ...