COP26 on horizon – but still no level playing field in sight

In four months’ time the eyes of the world will be focused on Scotland as the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) meets in Glasgow.

It is a global event with every nation arriving in Scotland for three days of intense negotiations on how to speed up efforts to tackle climate change.

World leaders will attend, the world’s media will be reporting, and every green lobby group will be there pushing their own agendas.

Back in 2009 I was fortunate enough to attend the COP in Copenhagen and witnessed at first hand the horse trading and back room dealing that went on to try to reach a global agreement to be announced to the world at the end of the conference.

Then, of course, it had little relevance for agriculture as emission reduction targets were much lower and the focus was on heavy polluters such as coal fired energy.

Twelve years on that is no longer the case.

Heavy polluters like the power station in Longannet in Fife have long been shut down and replaced with renewables.

Closing coal fired energy stations has until now delivered the bulk of emission reductions in the UK.

Since then, Scottish and UK governments have dramatically increased their carbon reduction targets.

Agriculture, as the third largest emitter of carbon in Scotland, is now right in the firing line.

For the climate sceptics in farming who would like to bury their heads in the sand, the demise of the coal industry should be a salutary reminder of how once key industries can become obsolete.

Especially now, since consumers have alternatives such as cultured and plant-based meat.

For First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, the COP in Glasgow will be an opportunity to play on the world stage, welcoming leaders and showcasing her world leading target of net zero by 2045.

It will, however, be a little embarrassing for her as her government has failed to hit their tough climate change targets for the third year in a row.

The latest emissions report to parliament revealed that failurereported emissions from most sectors was on a downward trend, however emissions in the agriculture sector were flatlining.

There was some good news for farmers in the report with emissions declining by 12.7% since 1990.

The bad news was the decline was due to reductions in cow and sheep numbers.

It is easy to see why civil servants under huge pressure from ministers to hit climate targets see cuts in livestock numbers as an easy answer to cutting emissions from farming.

More of the same old Common Agriculture Policy with a little tweaking, which is the Scottish Government’s current farm policy, is not the answer to the climate problem.

Last week the European Court of Auditors slammed the CAP for failing to reduce emissions or halt biodiversity loss despite £86 billion being spent on greening measures.

They said that the CAP had failed to make farming climate friendly, and the measures aimed at climate mitigation were little more than green wash.

In response to that failure the European Commission has proposed a series of binding targets aimed at making EU farming more sustainable in its Farm to Fork Strategy.

It aims to cut pesticides by 50%, fertilisers by 20% and antibiotic use by 50% by 2030.

In addition, it plans to have 25% of land in organic production and a further 10% of land protected for nature.

Under the new CAP agreed last week member states will top slice 25% of farmers basic payments and use them to fund national agri-environment plans overseen by the commission to ensure the targets are met.

That is on top of heavy environmental crosscompliance on the basic payment.

The commission is also developing a traffic light system of labelling that will show consumers which foods are low or high carbon products.

It hopes that by labelling high carbon foods consumers will switch away from red meat to other alternatives.

Nestle, Marks & Spencers, Co-op and Costa are all backing the scheme.

As you can imagine EU farm leaders are up in arms about the plans and warn they will lead to higher EU food prices, production falling and third country imports increasing.

In Scotland new farm minister Marie Gougeon has promised the Farm Led group reports will be a starting point for a new farm policy but the hard questions on how to drive the transition to low carbon farming are still up in the air.

Will she use the stick or the carrot? Targets and regulations or financial incentives?

In the drive to decarbonise there is a real danger of adding costs and losing productive capacity in the livestock sector, so how does that square with the pledge to double food and drink exports by 2030?

The Scottish Government has also pledged Scotland will stay fully aligned with EU rules.

Does that mean the minister will need to align Scottish policy with the EU’s new CAP and Farm to Fork policy?

So many questions farmers urgently need answers to, so they can plan their futures.

GOING GREEN: Targets are in place to cut the use of pesticides and fertilisers on farms in line with the government’s climate change policy.