Carbon-neutral targets up the ante on agriculture

FARMERS’ groups are worried the EU’s new pledge to be “carbon neutral” by 2050 will put them under renewed pressure to slash emissions.

The European Commission, in a paper published last week, said agriculture and forestry will have a major role to play in meeting the EU’s climate commitments.

Agricultural emissions in the EU have declined by 20pc since 1990, and now make up around 10pc of the EU’s total greenhouse gas emissions — less than transport and industrial emissions.

The two biggest contributors on farms are nitrous oxide and methane from cows and sheep. EU agriculture federation Copa and Cogeca say the EU’s carbon neutral pledge “fails to grasp” livestock’s actual contribution to climate change.

They are particularly annoyed at a Commis- sion paper accompanying the 2050 pledge, which says a decline in meat eating will “significantly” cut emissions.

“It fails to consider the positive impacts that European livestock production has on the land and rural communities,” says Copa and Cogeca president Pekka Pesonen.

“The European livestock sector, one of the most efficient in the world, deserves more credit for its contribution to a healthy and resilient Europe.”

Ireland, France and other major meat producers are also fearful of a glut of cheap imports from Mercosur, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, which, they say, do not have to comply to rules as strict as those imposed by the EU. They want farmers to be “remunerated at the level of their actual positive contribution to climate change mitigation” for any extra cuts they may have to make.

The EU has always thought of itself as a first mover on climate change, and is keen to act following the warning issued by a UN climate panel last month that we have only 12 years to limit global warming to 1.5°C.