Phosphorus price spikes: A wake-up call for phosphorus resilience
Phosphorus price spikes: A wake-up call for phosphorus resilience
复制标题
DOI：
10.3389/fsufs.2023.1088776
复制
发表时间：
2023-03-01
影响因子：
4.7
通讯作者：
Spears, Bryan M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Brownlie, Will J.;Sutton, Mark A.;Spears, Bryan M.
粮食系统依赖于可靠的磷供应来给土壤施肥。 2020年以来，疫情、地缘政治争端、贸易战和不断上涨的燃料价格导致磷商品价格上涨超过400%，加剧了当前的粮食危机。俄罗斯和乌克兰的冲突进一步扰乱了磷酸盐贸易。与此同时，由于城市废水处理不足、化肥使用和土地管理不当，磷流失到淡水中，对全球水质构成重大威胁。尽管粮食和水安全风险平衡不稳定，但各国基本上没有意识到自己的“磷脆弱性”，而且在解决粮食和水安全的国家和全球政策中明显缺乏磷。磷的脆弱性可以描述为由于全球磷短缺和污染的自然、地缘政治和社会经济层面，人类/系统容易受到伤害的程度。在这里，我们重点关注当前的价格飙升，强调其驱动因素、政策反应及其后果。我们强调需要对磷脆弱性进行综合评估，考虑不同规模的环境、社会经济和气候变化风险。我们阐述了减少磷废物、增加磷回收和更广泛的系统转型如何减少国家对进口磷的依赖，同时增强粮食和水安全。当前的化肥价格危机敲响了国际社会应对全球磷挑战的警钟。
Food systems depend on reliable supplies of phosphorus to fertilize soils. Since 2020, a pandemic, geopolitical disputes, trade wars and escalating fuel prices have driven a >400% increase in phosphorus commodity prices, contributing to the current food crisis. The Russia-Ukraine conflict has disrupted phosphate trade further. Concurrently, phosphorus losses to freshwaters, through insufficient municipal wastewater treatment and inappropriate fertilizer use and land management practices, are a significant threat to water quality globally. Despite precariously balanced food and water security risks, nations are largely unaware of their "phosphorus vulnerability" and phosphorus is markedly absent in national and global policies addressing food and water security. Phosphorus vulnerability can be described as the degree to which people/systems are susceptible to harm due to the physical, geopolitical and socio-economic dimensions of global phosphorus scarcity and pollution. Here, we bring the current price spike into focus, highlighting the drivers, policy responses and their consequences. We highlight the need for an integrated assessment of phosphorus vulnerability that considers environmental, socio-economic and climate change risks across scales. We illustrate how reducing phosphorus waste, increasing phosphorus recycling, and wider system transformation can reduce national reliance on imported phosphorus, whilst enhancing food and water security. The current crisis in fertilizer prices represents a wake-up call for the international community to embrace the global phosphorus challenge.