The 2013 CAP Refrom: EU Agriculture and Climate Change

Abstract

Climate change has been identified as a major challenge for agriculture within the EU. The rise of temperature across the EU aggravates the threat that the climate will pose to agricultural systems and will also lead farmers to adapt their farming techniques to cope with these new climatic conditions. Weather hazards will be more frequent in every region, varying from higher risks of floods and precipitation in Central and Eastern Europe to the rise of heat waves and droughts in the southern region. One of the goals of the 2013 Common Agricultural Policy reform was to help farmers address the climate change challenge. The Commission proposed three measures (crop diversification, maintaining permanent grassland, ecological focus areas) that were destined to reduce greenhouse gases emissions from agricultural activity. The reform was met with scepticism from all the stakeholders in the agricultural sector, one side arguing that it would put production and food safety in danger and the other side opposing the reform because the environmental benefits would be minimum. It also highlighted the dominating role of the Council in the CAP decision making process against the Commission.