On Tuesday 18 April, the European Parliament adopted (323 votes in favour, 257 against and 59 abstentions) an initiative report on sustainable carbon cycles. While MEPs endorsed the potential of carbon management to limit climate change, they also reiterated the priority the EU must afford to emissions reductions.
And for good reason: MEPs warned that too much reliance is being placed on future carbon removals as a way of achieving net negative emissions after 2050.
Furthermore, the European Parliament notes the European Commission’s proposal for a regulation (see EUROPE 13074/9) to establish an EU certification framework for carbon removals and its intention to establish a framework to identify activities that remove carbon from the atmosphere. MEPs have emphasised that this new monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) framework should be used to encourage carbon removals.
As was already the case on 2 March, when the European Parliament’s Committee on Environment (ENVI) voted on the text tabled by Alexander Bernhuber (EPP, Austrian) (see EUROPE 13133/7), MEPs underlined the importance of agriculture and forestry in the fight against climate change and in achieving the EU’s targets regarding the elimination of carbon emissions from the land use sector.
They also called for the collection and verification of data on farm emissions and removals before 2026, in order to use them within the framework of the sustainable food system legislation and in the forthcoming reform of the common agricultural policy.
MEPs also believe that carbon farming is an opportunity for farmers to transform their business model, moving towards sustainable agroecological and agroforestry practices. It would therefore be a way of rewarding farmers who voluntarily engage in the transition towards sustainable practices, while improving soil quality and fertility.
To read the text: https://aeur.eu/f/6e7 (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)