With the right incentives, climate action on land will provide new income opportunities for farmers, foresters and rural areas, outgoing European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan has said.
He told Monday’s informal agriculture and fisheries council that addressing environmental and climate challenges is increasingly high on political and societal agendas.
Enriching European soils will be a prerequisite for sustaining agriculture in the future
Commissioner Hogan said that soil protection is crucial for enhancing biodiversity and for adaptation to climate change.
“A healthy soil that is rich in organic matter helps to retain nutrients and humidity, which is crucial in our efforts to adapt agriculture to the consequences of climate change.
"Enriching European soils will be a prerequisite for sustaining agriculture in the future and the millions of farmers that depend on it.
CAP proposal
“I believe that the Commission’s proposal for the CAP post-2020 provides an adequately robust and flexible framework for member states to design effective intervention strategies that meet their climate targets and adaptation needs.
“The results and performance-based approach will ensure a strict link with our ambitious climate legislative framework, providing the right tools for constructing a sound intervention strategy under the future national CAP strategic plans,” he said.
Farm carbon scheme
The Commissioner said that a farm carbon scheme should reward farmers for additional mitigation action undertaken.
“In order to demonstrate the technical feasibility of such a scheme, the future CAP could be used to explore ways to design and implement farm carbon schemes.
"I would be interested to hear from you whether you intend to programme such initiatives in your national CAP strategic plans,” he said.
Mitigation actions can deliver clear benefits not only to farmers and foresters but also to our environment and society
Agriculture and forestry are unique in that they have the potential to sequester and store CO2 into our soil and biomass, he said, adding that mitigation actions can deliver clear benefits not only to farmers and foresters but also to our environment and society as a whole.
“Agriculture must play a central role in the fight against climate change.
"The CAP proposals lay out a clear vision towards a climate-friendly agricultural sector and enable cost-effective actions and policy tools to support the transformation of the sector,” he said.