This month, IATP Europe submitted feedback on the European Union's framework for its 2040 national climate targets, encouraging the European Commission to build an agriculture-specific greenhouse gas (GHG) emission target and support policy frameworks that help farmers and consumers transition away from high-emitting industrial livestock systems. Read the full submission here.
The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) Europe welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the EU’s framework for national climate targets.
Target setting is an important tool to ensure that sufficient action is taken to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across all sectors of the economy. It provides guidance to government agencies and private stakeholders on the speed and scale of climate action to inform investment decisions and avoid stranded assets. It can also bring visibility to a policy area.
Target setting is particularly important in the agrifood sector. As the EU advances towards its net zero (and then net negative) GHG emissions goals, the significance of agricultural emissions will grow, as they will be the largest source of any remaining GHG emissions.
Clarity on this residual emission level is needed, as it has implications for the scale of carbon removals needed to achieve the EU’s goals and for effort sharing amongst Member States. It is also critically important for farmers and others in the agrifood sector to have clarity on this long-term trajectory, to avoid making investments in production systems and farming practices that are not consistent with these long-term climate aims.
Progress on cutting GHG emissions in agriculture has lagged behind action in other sectors, with emissions largely stagnate for the last two decades. The sector is not particularly visible in climate policy, as it is subsumed within the Effort Sharing Regulation.
Read the full submission here with IATP Europe's recommendations for designing the national 2040 climate target framework.
