Pump priming towards the International Nitrogen Management System (INMSpp)

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a. Integrating research perspectives

The INMSpp project will benefit UK competitiveness by bringing together UK scientists with leading international partners allowing UK to lead the agenda on global nitrogen research in relation to environmental challenges. By going the 'extra mile' in integrating air, land and marine flows with impacts assessment and economic modelling, the project will provide key training for the team members, while improving UK competitiveness in the future global market for N management expertise. This can be expected to develop strongly as a response to increased awareness of N impacts as a result of the INMSpp and eventual INMS endeavours (impact: 3-20 years).

b. Cost savings for environmentally sensitive farming and environmental regulation

Agricultural activities, especially livestock, have major impacts on the environment leading to large societal costs. Improved understanding of N cycling will underpin advice on improved management techniques, both for farmers and conservation managers. By decreasing losses of nitrogen from the farming system, environmental measures can help farmers reduce their fertilizer bill. For example, a 30% reduction in agricultural N losses equates to a saving of 5 bn Euro per year to EU farmers (based on ENA). Environmental regulation can also entail costs to farmers, depending on the nature of best available techniques (BAT) and ambition of the commitments. Unit costs of abatement measures are substantially reduced where multiple benefits can be shown. (impact 5-10 yrs).

c. Evidence underpinning future European air quality, climate and other environmental policy

The ongoing negotiations to the EU National Emissions Ceilings Directive (NECD) highlight the importance of supporting European air policy with scientific evidence. In particular, the societal costs of particulate matter and N deposition to ecosystems highlight the need to understand the atmospheric and climate controls. The current analysis (see CLRTAP Long-term strategy, ECE/EB.AIR/2010/4) recognizes the challenge to increasingly link up between such policy domains to quantify the co-benefits between air pollution, climate, water and biodiversity policies, and to develop a holistic approach to N management. The INMSpp project will help take this to the next stage (linking air, climate and nutrients) by developing the basis for establishing future coupled modelling chains, allowing these links, and the economic consequences to be quantified. (impact: 3 to 10 yrs).

d. Supporting a global perspective on nitrogen management

At present there is no multilateral environmental agreement (MEA) to handle nitrogen management problems at a global scale as for climate and biodiversity. The INMSpp project will make a major impact in this direction by contributing the scientific capacity-building and data needed to underpin such a future MEA or more effective partnership between existing MEAs. The project will provide international scientific leadership to support these developments through involvement in the UNEP Global Partnership on Nutrient Management and the INI feeding directly into the GPA and UNEP agenda development (impact: 3-10 yrs).

e. Quality of life in a cleaner world.

Together, these activities will play a key role in improving quality of life. Until recently, the 'nitrogen challenge' facing humanity has received rather little publicity compared with issues such as climate change. Yet the recent ENA estimates of 70-320 billion Euro per year worth of N damage to human health, ecosystems and climate show that a cleaner management of nitrogen has a huge potential to benefit citizens. By improving integration across the nitrogen cycle, the benefit-cost ratios of mitigation measures will further increase, providing scientific evidence to support decision makers and citizens at local, national and international levels (impact: 2-20 yrs).