Abstract
Keeping the relationship between economic development, humankind and the environment in balance has been one of the main challenges of economic policies and science in recent years. Such concerns are recurrent when it comes to climate change and the dependence of the economic process on finite resources. In this way, the present study aims to assess Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions from the agricultural and livestock production and the Rural Development Index (RDI), seeking to identify the spatial relationship of these two variables among Brazilian states in 2010. The methodology used to meet the objective was the Exploratory Analysis of Spatial Data (EASD), which incorporates spatial factors. The main results obtained show that both RDI and emissions are positively influenced by space. Different patterns of association were observed among Brazilian states: states characterized by low emissions and high RDI; high emissions and high RDI; and low emissions and low RDI. Most parts of the states with high emissions are relevant livestock producers. It indicates, thus, that investments in more sustainable practices for livestock production allied with the promotion of welfare shall be encouraged. Although being a time cut, this study brings evidence that high levels of rural development, in its broad sense, do not always mean high emissions rates, the latter depending more on the type of agricultural and livestock activity practiced.
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Source: elaborated with research results. Note: RDI values range from 0 to 1, GHG metric is tons of equivalent carbon dioxide
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Notes
Understood here in the terms defined by Georgescu-Roegen (1971), where entropy represents the energy that does not generate work (from physics definition). The world’s general trend is the maximum entropy, where energy assumes a disordered form. Therefore, low entropy means the opposite. That is, an ordered form of energy, with a higher potential of generating work.
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Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance of the Agribusiness Postgraduate Program of Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul—Brazil and the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel—Brazil (CAPES, initials in Portuguese) for doctoral scholarships (Processes numbers 88887.498823/2020-00, 88882.439350/2019-01, 88887.488799/2020-00 and 88882.457565/2019-01).
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Batistella, P., Presotto, E., Lovato, L.G. et al. Rural Development Index (RDI) and GHG emissions of agricultural and livestock production: a spatial analysis of the Brazilian states. Environ Dev Sustain 26, 3147–3164 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-022-02777-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-022-02777-7