Farmers’ anger forces EU to back down on net zero

Brussels removes order to reduce emissions linked to agriculture after mounting anger across Europe

The European Union has caved in to angry protests from farmers and cut a target to slash agricultural emissions as part of the bloc’s net zero drive.
A demand to reduce nitrogen, methane and other emissions linked to farming by almost a third has been removed from a wider Brussels plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 90 per cent by 2040.
On Tuesday, Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, also proposed withdrawing the EU’s plan to halve the use of pesticides, calling it a “symbol of polarisation”.
“Our farmers deserve to be listened to,” she told the European Parliament.
“I know that they are worried about the future of agriculture and their future as farmers. But they also know that agriculture needs to move to a more sustainable model of production so that their farms remain profitable in the years to come.”
A recommendation urging EU citizens to eat less meat was also removed from the plan.
The concessions came amid mounting demonstrations by farmers in Belgium, France, Germany and Italy ahead of this year’s EU elections.
Blockades on supermarket distribution centres have left shelves empty in Brussels, while several people have been injured in traffic accidents caused by farmers’ protests in the Netherlands, as they dumped rubbish and set fires on highways.
Organisers have threatened to continue disruption in the lead-up to the elections for the European Parliament in June.
The ballot is seen as increasingly problematic for Mrs von der Leyen, and other mainstream politicians seeking re-election on a green agenda.
Resistance to the environmental overhaul has been steadily growing, including from the European People’s Party, the centre-Right political group to which commission president belongs.
The move to offer concessions to the farmers would be seen as a major step away from the bloc’s original green plans.
Agriculture was seen as “one of the core areas to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2040”, according to a draft European Commission plan, reported by the Financial Times.
The draft states that policies should now address the entire food sector rather than farming, which accounts for about 10 per cent of the EU’s emissions, “in isolation”.
The EU has pledged to be carbon neutral by 2050, with a first step of cutting emissions by 55 per cent compared with 1990 levels within six years.
Wopke Hoekstra, the EU’s Dutch climate commissioner, warned last month that the bloc had to ensure “our business stay competitive, there is a just transition”.
Eleven EU states, including France, Germany and Spain, have echoed that call in a letter to Brussels, urging a “fair and just transition” that should “leave no one behind, especially the most vulnerable citizens”.
The full plan to reduce emissions ahead of 2040 is to be announced later on Tuesday.