EU ignoring climate crisis with livestock farm subsidies, campaigners warn

Meat and dairy are estimated to be responsible for 12-17% of total greenhouse gas emissions. Yet the EU continues to pay out an estimated £24bn of taxpayer money (a fifth of the EU’s total budget) to support livestock farms across Europe.

TOM LEVITT: ‘The EU is disregarding the climate emergency by continuing to give out billions of euros in subsidies to climate-intensive livestock farms at the same time as promising to cut emissions, say campaigners. Under the Paris climate agreement, the EU and its member states have committed to reduce emissions in the European Union by at least 40% by 2030. The EU’s farming sector has shown no decline in emissions since 2010, with meat and dairy estimated to be responsible for 12-17% of total greenhouse gas emissions.

Yet the EU continues to pay out an estimated £24bn of taxpayer money – nearly a fifth of the EU’s total budget – to support livestock farms across Europe, the majority of which are climate-intensive. “Instead of pouring billions of euros into industrial farms that drive climate change, the EU must support farmers to produce less and better meat, and to provide meat and dairy alternatives,” said Greenpeace’s EU agriculture policy director, Marco Contiero… The EU agricultural commissioner, Phil Hogan, has previously been reported as dismissing the sector’s emissions footprint.

Compassion in World Farming campaigner Peter Stevenson said the EU was “deaf to the scientific arguments” that a reduction in EU production and consumption is necessary to tackle climate change. Former EU Environment commissioner Karl Falkenberg pointed the blame at MEPs in the EU Parliament’s all-powerful agri-committee for blocking reforms. More than half the politicians on the committee have declared interests as farmers, current or former partners in agricultural businesses’. SOURCE…

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