CO₂ emissions from European soils exceed removals, saysEEA report

Overall, soils in the European Union are emitting more CO₂ into the atmosphere than they are absorbing, putting the EU’s climate ambitions at risk, warns a report published, on Thursday 8 September, by the European Environment Agency (EEA).

While organic soils, such as peatlands, are important stores of carbon, their cultivation and drainage (to convert them into arable land) results in CO₂ emissions.

In 2019, EU Member States reported a loss of carbon from organic soils corresponding to about 108 megatonnes (Mt) of CO₂ emissions, the EEA said.

However, in the same year, mineral soils only absorbed approximately 44 Mt of CO₂.

In terms of net greenhouse gas emissions, EU soils released about 64 Mt of CO₂ equivalent into the atmosphere, which is just under 2% of the EU’s total net emissions in 2019. 

Calling for environmental protection to be linked to the fight against climate change, the German MEP, Jutta Paulus, rapporteur for the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament on the proposed regulation on nature restoration, said: “To meet the EU’s climate targets, our soils must become carbon reservoirs again. Peatlands and wetlands should play a prominent role in the new European renaturation law, as they bind a particularly large amount of climate-damaging gases”.

See the report: https://aeur.eu/f/2zv (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)