Methane Emissions and Productivity Growth in Italian Agriculture

The paper proposes an analysis of long-term agricultural methane emissions in Italian regions. Looking back over the past, this analysis shows a sustainable path achieved through the transformation of agriculture and its relative decline within the Italian economy. The paper proposes two distinct scenarios to analyze what kind of transformations could generate and support such sustainability in the future. The first concerns the reduction of the livestock population due to changes in dietary behaviour. The second is based on some changes in farming activity allowing for a further reduction of emissions with a constant or increasing level of production.