Policy seminar: The harmful environment impacts of agricultural subsidies and prospects for reform

Globally, agricultural support is high—totaling about $600 billion annually—and continues to increase. The harmful impacts of subsidies on trade are widely known, but their harmful environmental impacts are less well-understood. This was the theme of a December 14 policy seminar organized by IFPRI in collaboration with the University of Adelaide, Australia (UA).

A recent study by the UA Institute for International Trade (IIT) confirmed that a significant part of agricultural support relies on policy instruments that are environmentally harmful and generate increased greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), and that there are few constraints on these expenditures. IFPRI has analyzed the impacts of removing agricultural support on a variety of indicators measuring food security, nutrition, and climate outcomes and looked at the trade-offs of repurposing policies toward healthier diets and consumer incentives.