EU 2040 targets to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions must include cuts from agriculture, the vice-chair of the European Parliament's environment committee, Bas Eickhout, has said.
"If you put out 2040 policy for 90-95pc [GHG cuts compared with 1990 levels] then you can't avoid agriculture. You just can't reach those GHG cuts without agriculture," Eickhout told Argus. The EU is expected to present a policy communication next year examining potential GHG cuts for 2040.
But Dutch Green Eickhout was reluctant to put a figure on GHG cuts for the agricultural sector. The MEP was instrumental in pushing fellow Dutchman Wopka Hoekstra, now EU climate commissioner, to make "written promises" of GHG reductions of "at least 90pc" by 2040. Hoekstra also now publicly noted the need for higher emission cuts from agriculture.
For Eickhout, agriculture must also do "its bit".
"Until now, we've seen no reductions. Agriculture's GHG emissions have remained fairly constant. If you do nothing, then we're not going to reach the 2040 goals. Exactly how much we'll have to cut back is a question of distribution," he said.
Eickhout added that industry is to a "large degree" moving towards zero emissions by 2040 under the EU's emissions trading system.
"Building and transport [emissions] won't be at zero. And certainly not transport because we don't even have a zero [GHG] target for new trucks from 2040, let alone existing trucks," said Eickhout, a co-negotiator for parliament on Euro 7 emissions rules.
Eickhout today discussed international climate talks with Hoekstra, who is also the EU's chief negotiator for the UN Cop 28 climate conference in Dubai beginning on 30 November.
