September 16, 2009
Europe's farmers must help cut its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 percent by 2020, through producing biomass and storing carbon in the soil, but they will need help or risk ruin, the EU farm chief said.
 | The Methane Hoof-PrintA cow carries a methane canister to collect its' burps. Belching livestock produce almost half of all manmade greenhouse gas emissions. To cut these numbers, serious help is needed (Photo: Reuters) |
European agriculture emissions have already fallen some 20 percent since 1990 due in part to there being fewer cattle and also to better technology and farm management.
But the heat is on to find other ways to reduce emissions, ahead of a major global climate summit in Copenhagen in December and to meet tough goals already set for the next decade.
Mariann Fischer Boel, the European Union's Agriculture Commissioner, said on Tuesday that the farm sector should cut emissions of methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide.
"It (the sector) can do more to store carbon in farmland soils," she told European agriculture ministers at a meeting in southern Sweden, in a speech seen by journalists. Farmers can also fight emissions by supplying more biomass to produce energy and renewable materials, she said.
However, Fischer Boel said farmers would need support to make the changes needed to reduce emissions. "We can't just leave them to sink or swim: many of them would sink, with disastrous consequences for our food production base and our environment," she said.
Fischer Boel said Europe's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Health Check and Economic Recovery Package had helped set aside more money for farmers to fight climate change.
But she said Europe would "almost certainly" have to make changes to the CAP - mainly after 2013 - to give farmers much-needed support to reduce emissions. "We need to look very closely at giving stronger incentives for good soil management - especially for protecting carbon-rich soils, such as grasslands," she said.
Europe must strike the right balance between binding requirements and positive incentives, she added."It's not an option just to bury our farmers in rules."
editor: Reuters
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