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Farmers’ protests in Europe are a harbinger of the next big political challenge in combating global climate change. The question is how to grow food without causing further damage to the Earth’s climate and biodiversity.
On Tuesday, the clearest sign of its difficulties emerged after weeks of violent protests in several cities across the continent. The European Union’s top official, Ursula von der Leyen, has abandoned an ambitious bill to cut the use of chemical pesticides and tempered the European Commission’s next raft of recommendations on reducing agricultural pollution.
“We want to ensure that farmers remain in control of this process,” she told the European Parliament. “Farmers can only continue to earn their livelihoods if we work together to achieve our climate and environmental goals.”
Farmers say they are being hurt from all sides, including rising fuel costs, green regulations and unfair competition from producers in countries with fewer environmental regulations.
Despite this, agriculture accounts for 30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and the European Union has not made any dramatic changes to agricultural systems, including how farmers use chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Achieving the ambitious climate goals set by law is impossible. and its vast livestock industry.
It’s also important politically. Changing agricultural practices in Europe is proving extremely difficult, especially as parliamentary elections approach in June. Peasants are a powerful political force, and food and agriculture are powerful indicators of European identity.
Agriculture accounts for just over 1% of Europe’s economy and employs 4% of the population. However, a third of the EU budget is mostly received as subsidies.
Why are farmers protesting?
For weeks, various farmers’ organizations have taken to the streets across Europe, blocking highways with tractors, throwing firecrackers at police, erecting barricades, and causing mass traffic jams in Berlin, Brussels and Paris. causing confusion.
They are angry about many things. Some of the complaints have been directed at national leaders and proposals to cut agricultural diesel subsidies in France and Germany. Some of this is directed towards EU-wide proposals, such as reducing the use of nitrogen fertilizers (made from fossil fuels).
Farmers are also angry at trade deals that allow imports of agricultural products from countries that don’t have similar environmental protections. Some farmers are also seeking more government aid as they struggle with the effects of extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change.
Tim Benton, head of the environment program at London-based research institute Chatham House, said the protests were a symbol of the lack of support among farmers on the path to more sustainable farming. He said he is doing so. “This means that if we aim to transition to sustainability, we need to invest more in a ‘just transition’ to bring people along and make them feel good rather than penalized. “This is a widespread example of this,” he said.
How did the leaders react?
In Germany, the government rolled back several key policies, including postponing cuts to diesel subsidies for agricultural vehicles.
In France, the government offered 150 million euros ($163 million) in support to livestock farmers and suspended a national plan to reduce pesticide use, saying that farmers treated with pesticides that are illegal in France would The import of foreign agricultural products was prohibited.
But von der Leyen on Tuesday announced the scrapping of a bill to reduce pesticide use across the EU. The reason for this is that the bill has become a “symbol of polarization.”
Later that day, the commission announced its recommended 2040 climate goals. Although it will not be formally proposed or voted on until a new parliament is elected this summer, it would send a clear signal about the political priorities of Ms von der Leyen’s incumbent European People’s Party. This goal aims to reduce total emissions by 90 percent by 2040. However, it does not make any specific recommendations regarding reducing agricultural emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas produced primarily by livestock, or curbing the use of nitrogen fertilizers.
Scientists advising the European Union say both methane and nitrogen must be significantly reduced to meet the bloc’s climate goals.
Following Tuesday’s announcement, one of Europe’s farmers lobby groups, known as COPA-COGECA, declared victory. “The European Commission has finally admitted that its approach was not the right one,” the group said. Said At X.
Why is it politically risky?
The center-right European People’s Party, the largest party in the European Parliament, has long attracted support from rural voters. Recently, some of the country’s environmental and trade policies have sparked anger among its voters. Far-right groups, which are gaining traction in several countries on the continent, have seized on that discontent.
Simone Tagliapietra, a senior researcher at the Brussels-based research institute Bruegel, who studies European energy and environmental policy, said: “With elections looming, populist parties are taking advantage of opposition to European environmental policy.” There are opportunities to do so.” She said: “We have people in our family tree who were farmers. Food is an important part of European identity.”
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