Linking budgets and efficiency across scales to policy and consumer choices
This session brings together perspectives on nitrogen budgets, nitrogen use efficiency, nitrogen footprints, policy, and consumer choices to explore how these approaches can complement one another and support action. The position papers set out the contributors’ arguments and questions to help focus the discussion.
This special session explores the synergies and challenges of three approaches. As basic background information, Table 1 summarizes their main purposes, typical scales, and intended users in their original settings.
| Approach | Main purpose | Typical scales | Intended users |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nitrogen footprint | Link many kinds of entities of supply chains, primarily consumers, to nitrogen emissions and impacts | Individual, institutional, watershed, national | Individual, institutional, watershed, national, global |
| Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) | Assess how efficiently nitrogen inputs are converted into useful outputs within a defined system and what it means at different scales | Farm, food system; also regional to global | Farmers, other producers, advisors, and policy makers |
| National/regional nitrogen budgets | Understanding N cycle, identifying storage, losses, and possible intervention points | Subnational region, country, and global scale | Policy makers, researchers |
Based on Table 3.1 in the INMS Guidance Document on Nitrogen Impact Assessment Methods.
Note: Here, “nitrogen footprint” mainly refers to the N-Calculator and related derived approaches, while some other footprint approaches, including a budget-based approach, may also be within scope.
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Oral presentation · 10:52–11:01
Key claim · Denmark shows that efficient agricultural production does not guarantee a small N footprint or N independence when domestic consumption, export demand and imported Nᵣ sustain large cross-border N flows.
Oral presentation · 11:01–11:10
Key claim · A globally accessible, web-based nitrogen footprint calculator can catalyze the same shift in nitrogen awareness that carbon tools triggered for climate.
Oral presentation · 11:10–11:19
Key claim · Production-informed nitrogen footprints can connect farm-level nitrogen management to consumer and policy action.
Oral presentation · 11:19–11:28
Key claim · National cropland NUE is most informative when crop mix effects are separated from management effects and countries are benchmarked against countries with similar cropping systems.
Oral presentation · 11:28–11:37
Key claim · Progressing from assessment budgets to managing N excess requires footprints and efficiency metrics to function as a system for environmental integrity.
Flash talk · 11:40–11:42
Key claim · National nitrogen budgets allow benchmarking of a society’s nitrogen application.
Flash talk · 11:42–11:44
Key claim · Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) should be complemented with a decrease in fertilizer dependency if the goal is promoting N inputs other than external fertilizers in cropping systems.
Flash talk · 11:44–11:46
Key claim · Agriculture is central to Taiwan’s nitrogen challenge—and sustainable nitrogen management offers important opportunities for climate mitigation and the net-zero transition.
Flash talk · 11:46–11:48
Key claim · Nitrogen metrics become actionable when the right information reaches the right actor at a real decision point through trusted decision-support, advisory, and governance arrangements.
Panel discussion · 11:48–12:20
Scan the QR code or open the link to vote on discussion topics and submit questions for the panel.
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