{"id":108340,"date":"2022-10-05T17:41:45","date_gmt":"2022-10-05T15:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/?page_id=108340"},"modified":"2024-10-04T16:06:35","modified_gmt":"2024-10-04T14:06:35","slug":"carbon-sinks","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hu\/work-areas\/agriculture\/carbon-sinks\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate Action in Agriculture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Climate Action in Agriculture<\/h1>\n

While being a major contributor to the climate crisis, pollution, and nature destruction, the agricultural sector is also one of the first victims. This is not a future issue. Extreme weather, land degradation, water scarcity, biodiversity collapse and increased food prices are all exerting pressure on our food systems right now, endangering livelihoods and future food security. <\/strong><\/h4>\n

It is possible to produce food with much lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and reduced impact on the natural environment, all whilst capturing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in soils and vegetation. Farmers and other land managers can and should make use of this potential to tackle the climate crisis. The key is to restore agro-ecosystems and adopt nature- and climate-friendly agroecological practices.<\/p>\n

Emissions reduction<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

The biggest sources of GHG emissions in EU agriculture are animal rearing and the use of fertilisers, which together are responsible for nearly <\/span>380 million tonnes of CO2e<\/span><\/a> in 2022 or <\/span>12%<\/span><\/a> of the EU\u2019s total GHG emissions. On top of this, peatlands drained for agricultural purposes emit a staggering <\/span>166 million tonnes of CO2e<\/span><\/a> every year.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At EU-level, agricultural emissions have stagnated for the past two decades, although trends vary significantly across countries. At the current rate, <\/span>emissions will decrease little and very slowly<\/span><\/a> over the next three decades, nowhere near what is needed to meet the EU\u2019s climate objectives.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To ensure that the agriculture sector contributes fairly and effectively to the society-wide effort of mitigating climate change, binding sectoral emissions reduction targets and adequate policies and instruments are necessary. This will entail revising the Common Agricultural Policy, which currently does not lead to significant emission reductions on agricultural land, as well as designing effective complementary tools.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Carbon sequestration<\/h4>\n

In our fight against the climate crisis, healthy ecosystems are powerful allies. Forests, wetlands, grasslands, as well as agricultural land can function as \u201ccarbon sinks\u201d, storing significant amounts of carbon in their soils and vegetation. However, many of Europe’s ecosystems are severely degraded, and therefore not sequestering as much carbon as they could, or even losing carbon to the atmosphere. To protect and restore our crucial carbon sinks to their full potential, we need to act now.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Carbon removals, including<\/span> land carbon sequestration<\/span>, are an integral part of the EU environmental and climate policy<\/span>. Together with maximum emission reductions, they<\/span> will <\/span>be <\/span>required<\/span> to <\/span>keep<\/span> global warming <\/span>under<\/span> 1.5 \u00b0C<\/span>, limit<\/span> temperature overshoot, reach<\/span> EU climate neutrality by 2050, and to <\/span>accomplish<\/span> negative emissions thereafter<\/span>. <\/span>W<\/span>hile<\/span> natural <\/span>carbon <\/span>sinks present <\/span>many<\/span> opportunities, their complex nature is rife with pitfalls<\/span> \u2013<\/span> not least the vulnerability and reversibility of carbon sequestration<\/span> \u2013 which must <\/span>be managed through a robust policy framework.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Carbon farming,<\/span>\u00a0as defined by the EU Commission,<\/span>\u00a0is <\/span>any <\/span>practice of managing land in a way that <\/span>captures and temporarily stores atmospheric <\/span>and biogenic carbon in<\/span> biogenic carbon pools <\/span>or reduce<\/span>s soil emission<\/span>s<\/span>. It <\/span>can <\/span>support productive and sustainable farming by increasing soil organic carbon, which <\/span>has the <\/span>benefit<\/span> of<\/span> improv<\/span>ing<\/span> nutrient cycling<\/span>, soil structure<\/span>,<\/span> and water retention<\/span>. <\/span>If implemented well<\/span> \u2013 and by <\/span>this<\/span> we<\/span> mean <\/span>in <\/span>a context of ecosystem restoration<\/span> which<\/span> benefits climate and biodiversity<\/span> \u2013<\/span> carbon farming<\/span> can be a part of<\/span> the just transition <\/span>to agroecological practices, <\/span>benefiting<\/span> EU agriculture<\/span> by<\/span> reducing the sector’s negative impacts and making it more resilient in the face of a changing climate<\/span>.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Our current focus<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n