NGOs and the European organic movement are calling for the development of a new indicator to measure progress towards the EU’s goal of reducing pesticide use by 50% by 2030.
The organisations behind the European Citizens’ Initiative ‘Save Bees and Farmers’, which, in 2019, called for an 80% reduction in chemical pesticides (see EUROPE 12803/7), stressed, on 9 June, that the harmonised risk indicator HRI-1, adopted in 2019 by the Member States, “undermines the ambition and credibility of the reduction efforts” made.
This indicator was deemed inadequate by the European Court of Auditors in 2020, they point out.
A paper from GLOBAL 2000 by Friends of the Earth Austria, published on the same day shows that the HRI-1 systematically overestimates the risk of natural substances used in organic farming compared to synthetic substances.
For example, HRI-1 measures an 800% higher risk for a single application of potassium bicarbonate - a natural fungicide classified by the Commission as a low-risk active substance and used as a chemical yeast - than for difenoconazole - a toxic synthetic fungicide.
According to IOFAM Organics Europe, a better indicator can be constructed on the basis of sales data of synthetic pesticides classified as candidates for substitution because of their combination of toxic and persistent properties.
To see the Global 2000 document: https://aeur.eu/f/21x (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)