US climate policy yields water quality cobenefits in the Mississippi Basin and Gulf of Mexico.

ABSTRACT: We utilize a coupled economy-agroecology-hydrology modeling framework to capture the cascading impacts of climate change mitigation policy on agriculture and the resulting water quality cobenefits. We analyze a policy that assigns a range of United States government's social cost of carbon estimates ($51, $76, and $152/ton of CO₂-equivalents) to fossil fuel-based CO₂ emissions. This policy raises energy costs and, importantly for agriculture, boosts the price of nitrogen fertilizer production. At the highest carbon price, US carbon emissions are reduced by about 50%, and nitrogen fertilizer prices rise by about 90%, leading to an approximate 15% reduction in fertilizer applications for corn production across the Mississippi River Basin. Corn and soybean production dec

SUBMITTER: Zuidema S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10614783 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature