Polish farmers march in Warsaw against EU climate policies and the country’s pro-EU leader
- May 11, 2024
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Polish farmers march in Warsaw against EU climate policies and the country’s pro-EU leader
Subject: IR
Section: Places in news
Context:
- In Warsaw, Poland, a significant protest by farmers took place against the European Union’s Green Deal and its impact on agriculture.
Farm protests across Europe:
- Farmers from at least nine European countries have united in protest, including Greece, Poland, Spain, Germany, France, Romania, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, and Lithuania.
- The roots of this discontent extend back to 2019 when Dutch farmers blocked roads in opposition to new nitrogen emission restrictions.
- Reasons include:
- Spiking energy, transport and fertiliser costs, import of cheap products like grains and meat.
- Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
- Climate change, Extreme weather events such as floods and droughts
- EU’s environmental regulations
Climate change and Europe’s agriculture sector:
- Global warming has led to more frequent and intense weather extremes across Europe, adversely affecting agriculture.
- Recent decades have seen increased occurrences of droughts, forest fires, heat waves, storms, and heavy rainfall in Europe.
- The agriculture sector has been significantly impacted:
- EU’s olive oil production hit a record low from July 2022 to June 2023 due to severe droughts affecting major producers.
- In Spain, the production of wheat, barley, and rice has substantially decreased over the past decade.
- Heavy rainfall in parts of France, Germany, and Poland last year delayed wheat harvests and caused crop damage.
- In Italy and Greece, wet conditions fostered fungal outbreaks that damaged apples and pears.
- Greece experienced devastating wildfires in 2023, destroying around 20% of its annual farm revenue.
- The UN’s IPCC warns that if global temperatures rise by 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a third of Southern Europe could face water scarcity, indicating worsening conditions for agriculture.
Europe’s plan to deal with the problem:
- In 2020, the European Commission adopted the European Green Deal aiming for the EU to be climate-neutral by 2050, involving drastic reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and offsetting unavoidable emissions.
- The plan includes a target to cut GHG emissions by at least 55% by 2030.
- The “From Farm to Fork” strategy was introduced to transform the EU’s agriculture sector, which is responsible for 11% of the EU’s total GHG emissions and is considered a significant contributor to climate issues.
- Agriculture emits nitrous oxide (N2O), a potent greenhouse gas, primarily from the use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers in farm soils. N2O is 298 times more potent than CO2.
- Key goals of the “From Farm to Fork” strategy include:
- Reducing fertilizer use by 20% by 2030.
- Cutting pesticide use by 50% by 2030.
- Increasing the share of agricultural land under organic farming to 25%.
- Allocating more land for non-agricultural purposes to reduce overall GHG emissions from agriculture.
Protests against ‘Green deal’ and roll back of policies:
- European farmers are protesting strict and economically challenging environmental regulations introduced as part of the EU’s green transition, arguing that these rules exacerbate already tight margins worsened by factors such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine and rising energy costs.
- The financial burden of stringent climate regulations could lead to reduced production and increased farmer protests.
- In response to growing opposition, the EU has begun to roll back some environmental policies.
- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the withdrawal of a proposal to reduce pesticide use, citing its polarizing nature.
- Furthermore, the EU‘s newly recommended 2040 climate targets do not specify reductions for methane and NO2 emissions from agriculture, even as other environmental regulations are being relaxed in countries like Germany and France.
- Despite these rollbacks, the EU continues to face the challenge of reducing agricultural emissions to meet the objectives of the Green Deal without further alienating farmers and jeopardizing their livelihoods.