EU Member States are continuing discussions on one of the important themes of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union, namely low-carbon agriculture and how to reward farms that are able to store carbon in biomass and in agricultural and forest soils.
On Monday 31 January, the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) discussed the French Presidency’s working document (https://aeur.eu/f/3y ) on low-carbon agriculture. In addition, the EU countries’ ministers of agriculture will discuss this issue at their informal meeting from 6 to 8 February in Strasbourg. A document (https://aeur.eu/f/3z ) has been prepared for the ministers’ discussions. The EU ministers of agriculture are then expected to adopt conclusions on low-carbon agriculture in March (see EUROPE 12877/23).
By the end of 2022, the Commission will present a legislative proposal on the establishment of a regulatory framework for the certification of carbon removals.
Public funding. At the SCA, the delegations considered that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) contributes to carbon storage. Many of them mentioned the interventions included in their national strategic plans (implementing the new CAP from 1 January 2023) that contribute to low-carbon agriculture, such as organic farming, permanent grasslands, wetlands, cover crops and intermediate crops, precision farming, sustainable forest management and soil-related eco-regimes.
However, the EU countries believe that the CAP should not be the only source of funding in this area.
Criteria for the definition of a common certification framework. Some delegations to the SCA indicated that they preferred to wait for the Commission’s proposal and the accompanying impact assessment before taking a position.
Member States called for a simple and transparent certification framework based on scientific advice and a common methodology. Several delegations also stressed that double counting of environmental benefits should be avoided and that country specificities and efforts already made in the field of carbon storage should be taken into account. In order to properly define these criteria, several countries reiterated their support for the creation of an expert group.
On the whole, the Member States felt that the certification system should also take into account practices that contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases.
At a round table on sustainable carbon cycles organised by the European Commission on 31 January, Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski said that “the certification of sequestered carbon faces a number of challenging technical issues”. He cited difficulties related to the duration of the removal and to the risk of “uncontrolled re-emission” and the need to identify “potential impacts on biodiversity”. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)