ABSTRACT Typically, the effectiveness of mitigation policy is assessed jointly across environmental, economic, and social dimensions. Agriculture is recognized as the most climate‐sensitive industry and three‐quarters of the global poor depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Hence, employing net‐zero targets for 143 nations as a novel angle, this study designed a multi‐period difference‐in‐differences model to assess this statement, with a particular focus on its agricultural economic impact. Results indicated that mitigation policy is expected to reduce agricultural output value by 7.9% and the magnitude of emission reduction is nearly half that of output reduction. This finding implies that decarbonization is not merely a sacrifice of agricultural output, but may lead to its destruction. Moreover, mitigation policy exhibits a statistically significant negative impact on no poverty. Notably, observed output losses is primarily attributed to stagnant mitigation technology. Fortunately, this study identified that the output‐enhancing effect of adaptation policy can largely compensate for these losses. To achieve a sustainable future, global entities must collectively optimize the deployment of climate action across multiple fronts to practically enhance the effectiveness of mitigation policy.
Lai et al. (Fri,) studied this question.