In response to European Parliaments vote today on review of EU air quality policy, Copa and Cogeca said it is a step in the right direction but it still poses a serious challenge to the EU livestock sector
Copa-Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen said “We welcome as a positive move European Parliaments vote concerning methane in the National Emission Ceilings Directive (NEC). We urge the EU Commission to hear this message. But we still have serious concerns about the ammonia reduction targets which pose a serious challenge to us, jeopardising food production which is critical with world food demand set to rise by 60% by 2050”
“We need to ensure fair burden sharing between Member States in a cost-efficient way, which is lacking in the current EU Commission proposal. Moreover, the proposal does not take sufficiently into account previous efforts made at national level by industry to tackle emissions. We have reduced ammonia emissions by almost 30% from 1990”, he explained.
“As it stands now, the Commission proposal will drastically accelerate changes in the structure of farms because the ammonia reductions are not cost-efficient and this was not highlighted in the Commission’s impact assessment. Small and medium sized farms will be particularly hard hit. This is not good for the environment because if our production is cut, demand in Europe and in the world will be met from non-EU countries which have less stringent environmental legislation than us. And of course it is not good for the economy and society as a whole. We think that there is room for good sense to prevail concerning this question and we look forward to contributing in that direction in the upcoming talks with EU Council”, he concluded.
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