Towards a taxonomy of agri-environmental regulations

Regulations are an important part of the policy toolkit governments can use to address climate and environmental objectives in agriculture. This report reviews the existing literature on the characteristics and assessment of environmental regulations in agriculture. It finds that direct evidence on the outcomes and cost-effectiveness of agri-environmental regulations is generally limited and situation-specific. However, a taxonomy that classifies and organises information on regulations can give a sense of their number, the environmental domains covered, and the scope and depth of their application. This is potentially useful with respect to measuring progress on international commitments for action on climate change mitigation and other analysis.