The French Presidency of the Council of the EU is organising an informal meeting of Agriculture Ministers from 6 to 8 February in Strasbourg on the theme of carbon farming and carbon sequestration in soils and forests.
The French Minister of Agriculture, Julien Denormandie, has made the subject of carbon farming one of his main priorities as President-in-Office of the EU Council during this semester (see EUROPE 12881/4).
EU Agriculture Ministers may adopt conclusions on this issue at their meeting in March. The European Commission is due to present a legislative proposal on the certification of agricultural carbon removals at the end of the year.
In a document (https://aeur.eu/f/3y ) discussed on 31 January in the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA), the French Presidency of the EU Council suggests extending the scope of practices that can be certified to those that reduce all greenhouse gas emissions (including methane, for example).
However, at a roundtable on sustainable carbon cycles organised by the Commission on 31 January, Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski recalled that the certification of sequestered carbon faces a number of difficult technical issues, citing the issue of the sustainability of carbon sequestration by agriculture and the need to identify “potential impacts” on biodiversity. “We need to check the credibility of all available options, only then can we start thinking about a financing model for farmers through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) eco-regimes, for example”, warned Christian Holzleitner, Head of Unit at the Commission’s Directorate-General for Climate.
France, in a document (https://aeur.eu/f/3z ) prepared for the informal, suggests a list of agricultural and forestry practices: - management of livestock and associated effluents; - crop management (optimisation of nitrogen fertilisation, introduction of leguminous plants in rotations, varietal selection, etc.) which reduces nitrous oxide emissions; - establishment of hedges, agroforestry, preservation of permanent grasslands and wetlands; - afforestation of land; - the development of methanisation, renewable energies and biofuels as well as the use of biomaterials.
Visits. Mr Denormandie will host his EU counterparts at a dinner on Sunday 6 February. The day of 7 February will be devoted to field visits. The Ministers will first visit the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE) in Colmar to discuss mildew-resistant grape varieties. They will then have a presentation of the French low-carbon label. In the afternoon, the Ministers will visit a farm involved in the label. In the evening, an official dinner will be held in the ‘Josephine’ pavilion. The following day, the Ministers will discuss the role of agriculture and forestry in the EUs climate objectives.
Public consultation in sight. The Commission will soon launch a public consultation on the certification of agricultural carbon credits. It will be opened the week of 7 February, announced Christian Holzleitner. This public consultation will be a further step towards the legislative proposal for European certification on carbon sequestration, expected in the fourth quarter of 2022. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)