Angry farmers’ protests spread across Europe, with results – NBC Chicago

• The EU wants to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
• It also aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.
• Farmer protests spread across the English Channel to the UK over the weekend.

The European Union is proud to be a champion of the environment.

But that reputation is now being put to the test after the country rolled back its climate policies in the wake of angry farmers’ protests across the continent.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, now intends to scrap plans to halve pesticide use. The agency also decided last week to exclude the agriculture sector from a strict schedule to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2040.

EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said on CNBC on Thursday that he was “satisfied” with the U-turn because it was not “completely fair.”

“We need to reduce the use of pesticides, but we don’t need to force farmers to use them.” [to do it]” he said, adding that the solution is to provide more financial subsidies to the sector to encourage them to pursue more environmentally friendly activities.

The EU wants to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. It also wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.

Asked whether these recent policy changes could undermine ambitious goals, Wojciechowski said, “This is a general goal for the economy as a whole, but for agriculture, we need to focus on the specificities of agriculture. It should be considered.”

The reassessment of Europe’s climate policy comes as the bloc approaches EU parliamentary elections in June, with more far-right and fringe MPs expected to join parliament.

“The farmers’ question will dominate the election campaign ahead of the European Parliament in 2024.” [elections]”This is becoming one of the few pan-European issues that are contested by different parties,” Alberto Alemanno, a professor at HEC Paris Business School, told CNBC via email.

“The next EU political cycle (2024-2029) will undoubtedly become less green to the point that it calls into question the implementation of the Green New Deal.” [Europe’s flagship program towards carbon neutrality] Alemanno said it would also slow the pace of next chapters, such as extending sustainability requirements to agriculture, adding that recent protests were “only a precursor to more conflicts to come.”

A confluence of factors has prompted farmers’ protests in recent weeks, causing damage in capitals such as Paris. These include higher costs, increased debt, competition from cheaper markets, and lower selling prices.

For example, the average price of agricultural products received by farmers fell by 9% in the third quarter of 2023 compared to a year ago.

Luc Vernet, executive director of the Farm Europe think tank, told CNBC that farmers need more investment support.

“Farmers no longer have access to cheap money and bankers are becoming more reluctant to take advantage of it.” [lend] Funding for the agricultural sector. There is therefore a need for serious consideration within the European Union on how to achieve the transition. “Because it’s clear that we need to move on,” he said.

Farmers are at the heart of the Common Agricultural Policy, one of the EU’s most important and historic laws, which provides €55 billion ($59.3 billion) in subsidies to the sector each year.

Farmer protests spread across the English Channel to the UK over the weekend. Farmers in Britain, which has left the European Union, staged an impromptu tractor demonstration in the port city of Dover on Friday to protest against foreign food imports.