The EU’s new 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework has highlighted the mitigation potential of the agricultural sector for achieving the EU’s greenhouse gas reduction targets.
The new Framework (agreed on 23 October 2014) has endorsed a binding EU target of reducing domestic greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030.
Although there is not a specific reductions target for agriculture, the new package specifically calls on the European Commission to “examine the best means of encouraging the sustainable intensification of food production, while optimising the sector's contribution to greenhouse gas mitigation and sequestration, including through afforestation”.