While EU talks climate change, 82% of its farm subsidies go to high emissions foods

Over 80 per cent of European Union agriculture subsidies support polluting livestock and animal product farming, a new study has found. The latest revelation undermines the EU’s climate targets.

The study was published by the journal Nature Food on Monday and came amid growing concerns that global food systems account for about a third of greenhouse gas emissions.

The report stated that the EU’s Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) currently “presents an economic disincentive for transitions” to more “sustainable practices”.

“We found that the CAP disproportionately supports animal-based products over plant-based alternatives,” said the report’s lead author Anniek Kortleve from Leiden University in The Netherlands.

“It came as a little bit of a surprise. It was a little bit higher than other studies reported before, and this is because of the proper inclusion of feed subsidies,” she explained.

Why is this concerning?

The study alarmed the EU officials who are trying to reduce the body’s greenhouse gas emissions.

It is important to note that the direct payments to livestock farmers accounted for half of the subsidies under the policy. Out of this, 57 billion euros was budgeted in 2013 to fund high-emissions agriculture, the study says.

While the researchers focused on 2013 figures, co-author Paul Behrens emphasised that “not much has changed” in the distribution of the subsidies up until 2020.

A ‘damaging incentive’

Researchers went on to call it a “damaging incentive” and pointed out that the subsidies challenge the bloc’s goals to migrate and adapt to climate change.

“Globally, emissions from the food system are enough to drive us beyond 1.5 (degrees Celsius)”, Behrens said referring to the threshold set by the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit the increase in average global temperatures.

“It’s very difficult to meet those targets if you’re setting up the economics such that you’re incentivizing the most damaging products,” he added.

The study found that 12 per cent of CAP subsidies — particularly to “high value” products like cheese, pig meat and wine—were exported to non-EU countries. The list included countries like China, Russia and the United States.

However, the researchers did observe the importance of subsidies for farmers. Behrens insisted that the CAP system needs to be “reimagined” to encourage “environmental benefits” while adapting to “far more precarious” conditions with climate change.