While more than a quarter of all EU agricultural spending in the 2014-2020 period—over €100 billion—has been allocated to fighting climate change, agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have not fallen since 2010, warns the European Court of Auditors in a stern report published on Monday 21 June.
This report ‘Common Agricultural Policy and Climate’ is a wake-up call at a time when an imminent agreement is hoped for on the 2021-2027 CAP (see EUROPE 12744/7).
“The new CAP should give more importance to reducing emissions from agriculture and increase accountability and transparency on its contribution to climate change mitigation”, according to the report lead, Viorel Ștefan.
The auditors made the following observations:
– Emissions from livestock—about half of all agricultural emissions—have not decreased since 2010. They are directly related to the size of the herd, and two thirds of them are due to cattle. The share of emissions from livestock farming increases further if emissions from feed production (including imports) are taken into account. However, the CAP does not provide for a limit on livestock numbers or an incentive to reduce them. Some of its market measures promote the consumption of animal products, which has not decreased since 2014. In doing so, they contribute more to maintaining GHG emissions than to reducing them.
In addition to reducing the number of animals, meat consumption should be reduced, the chief auditor said.
– The CAP supports climate-damaging practices, such as funding farmers growing drained peatlands, which accounts for less than 2% of the EU’s agricultural land, but emits 20% of agricultural GHGs. The money intended for rural development could have been used to fund the restoration of these peatlands.
– The greening scheme has not provided incentives for farmers to adopt effective climate change mitigation measures and has had only a marginal impact on the climate.
In particular, the Court recommends that the Commission: – take steps to ensure that the CAP reduces emissions from agriculture; – take measures to reduce emissions from cultivated drained organic soils; – provide incentives for the restoration of these soils; – apply the ‘polluter pays’ principle, which the Commission has agreed to explore; – regularly report on the CAP’s contribution to mitigation. The latter recommendation was rejected by the Commission on the grounds that it would be difficult to report, given the amount of information to be collected.
The Court recommends that Member States introduce monitoring systems for peatlands and wetlands. The recommendation to Member States to set a target in their respective National Strategic Plans was partially accepted. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)