| Climate change mitigation
This section is dedicated to policy issues related to agriculture and climate change.
While there is no European policy that specifically addresses climate change mitigation in agriculture, the greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector are influenced by a number of agricultural and environmental policies.
One of the main objectives of the PICCMAT project is the formulation of a number of Policy Recommendations aiming at turning farming practices into more climate-friendly ones. The two main regulatory instruments to be used are Cross-compliance and Agro-environmental measures.
A large consultation process was organised in June and July in order to colelct stakeholders' contributions and comments to the policy recommendations process.
A final policy recommendations report has been published and is now available here. This report constitutes an essential contribution to the EC and Member States reflection for the design of climate mitigation agricultural policies and incentives. The summary of this report offers a quick view of the main ideas developed.
A short overview of EU policies relevant in the context of climate change mitigation in agriculture can also be downloaded here: PICCMAT policy review
Workshop on 25 June 2008: Climate Change Mitigation in Agriculture - Policy options for the Future, Eurocities, Brussels
In the light of these recent developments, the workshop "Climate Change Mitigation in Agriculture – Policy options for the Future" aims to discuss policy options with relevant stakeholders from science, EU and national administrative bodies and NGOs. By bringing together diverse stakeholders, the workshop creates a forum for the development of policy recommendations for the current policy period and beyond 2013 to strengthen climate change mitigation measures in European agricultural policies.
The presentation flyer of the workshop can be downloaded here.
Powerpoint presentations of the workshop:
Photos of the workshop are available here.
Related references and weblinks
Aarts, F. (2005). Nutrient balances as implementation of the EU Nitrates Directive; experiences from the Netherlands. http://www.lr.dk/planteavl/diverse/PLK05_11_1_1_F_Aarts.pdf.
CIAA (2007). Managing Environmental Sustainability in the European Food & Drink Industries. Confederation of the Food and Drink Industries in the EU (CIAA). http://www.ciaa.eu/documents/brochures/brochure_CIAA_envi.pdf
EEA (2007). Technical report No 7/2007 – Annual European Community greenhouse gas inventory 1990 – 2005. Available at: http://reports.eea.europa.eu/technical_report_2007_7/en
ENTEC UK Limited (2005): National Emissions Ceiling Directive Review. Task 1 – In depth analysis of the NEC national programmes. Final Report for the European Commission, DG Environment. http://ec.europa.eu/environment/air/necr.htm.
Farmer, Martin, Vicki Swales, Lone Kristensen, Heike Nitsch, Bernhard Osterburg, Xavier Poux (2007): Cross Compliance: Practice, Lessons and Recommendations. http://www.ieep.eu/publications/pdfs/crosscompliance/cc_network_D24.pdf
GFA Consulting Group (GFA) (2006). Analysis of the requirements for soil and biodiversity protection as well as for greenhouse gas mitigation within the rural development programmes. Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/analysis/external/index_de.htm.
IPCC (2007) 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. Volume 4. Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use. NGGIP, IGES, Kanagawa, Japan: http://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/vol4.html
ITC and FIBL (2007). Organic Farming and Climate Change. International Trade Centre (ITC) and Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Switzerland. http://www.intracen.org/Organics/documents/Organic_Farming_and_Climate_Change.pdf (accessed at 20.05.2008).
Joosten, Hans on behalf of the International Mire Conservation Group (IMCG) (2007): Peat should not be treated as a renewable energy source. IMCG statement in response to the European Partliament’s Resolution on a Strategy for Biomass and Biofuels (2006/2082(INI)). http://www.imcg.net/docum/peatrenewable.pdf.
Kristensen, L. And J. Primdahl (2006). The relationship between cross compliance and agri-environment schemes. Deliverable 13. A research paper of the Cross Compliance Network. http://www.ieep.eu/publications/pdfs/crosscompliance/D13%20Cross%20compliance%20and%20agri-environment%20schemes.pdf
Kuikman, P.J., W.J.M. de Groot, R.F.A. Hendriks, J.Verhagen and F. de Vries (2003). Stocks of C in soils and emissions of CO2 from agricultural soils in the Netherlands. Wageningen, Alterra, Research Instituut voor de Groene Ruimte. Alterra-rapport 561. Available at:http://www2.alterra.wur.nl/Internet////Modules/pub/PDFFiles/Alterrarapporten/AlterraRapport561.pdf
New Zealand government (2007). The framework for a New Zealand emissions trading scheme. http://www.climatechange.govt.nz/files/emissions-trading-scheme-complete.pdf.
Oréade-Brèche (2005). Evaluation of agri-environmental measures. http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/eval/reports/measures/index_fr.htm
UNEP (2008): Assessment on peatlands, biodiversity and climate change. Executive summary. http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=523&ArticleID=5723&l=en..
Zahm, F., P. Viaux, P. Girardin, L. Vilain, C. Mouchet (2006): Farm Sustainability Assessment using the IDEA Methods. INFASA symposium March 16 and 17 2006, Zentrum Paul Klee Bern, Switzerland. http://www.idea.portea.fr/fileadmin/documents/En_savoir_plus/IDEA-BERN_2006.pdf.
A lot of interesting information on cross-compliance can be found on the Cross-Compliance Network project:
http://www.ieep.eu/projectminisites/crosscompliancenetworkproj/
About Agro-environmental issues, one shall consult DG agri website:
http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/index_en.htm
In particular, an evaluation of Agro-environmental measures has been realised in 2005. It is available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/eval/reports/measures/index_fr.htm
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