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Green CAP project
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Two of the main challenges underlying the current CAP reform are 'greening' the agriculture sector (reducing environmental impacts) and viable food production with a view to ensure food security. To address these challenges, the European Environment Agency invited a panel of external experts to reflect on these challenges and to explore long-term intervention strategies in the context of the EEA’s ‘Green CAP project’.
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Environmental topics
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Agriculture
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Greening agricultural policy
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Greening Europe’s agriculture
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Human society relies for its health and well-being on four basic categories of natural resources: food, water, energy and other materials including fibre, minerals and processed chemicals. At the global level, food, water and energy systems are becoming increasingly vulnerable. Global demand for energy and water is projected to rise by 40 % over the next 20 years if no major policy changes are implemented.
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Environmental topics
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Agriculture
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Reforming the CAP
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Agriculture could mean food, employment, idyllic landscapes, rural culture and preserving species and habitats. It could also mean soil and water pollution, deforestation, land conversion and monoculture landscapes. Weighing the pressures and the benefits from agriculture, how could Europe shape its future agricultural policy?
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Environmental topics
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Agriculture
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Greening agricultural policy
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Food security and environmental impacts
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The CAP reform needs to tackle two key challenges simultaneously: ‘greening’ the agriculture sector (reducing agriculture's environmental impacts) and ensuring food security.
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Environmental topics
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Agriculture
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Greening agricultural policy
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Common Agricultural Policy reform – reducing the impact of farming
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Today, the European Commission launched its proposals for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) after 2013. The key objective is ‘to strengthen the competitiveness, sustainability and permanence of agriculture throughout the EU in order to secure for European citizens a healthy and high-quality source of food, preserve the environment and develop rural areas’. The proposals tie financial support more closely to environmental goals.
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News
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Land use — SOER 2010 thematic assessment
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Land use shapes our environment in positive and negative ways. Productive land is a critical
resource for food and biomass production and land use strongly influences soil erosion and soil
functions such as carbon storage. Land management largely determines the beauty of Europe's
landscapes. It is important therefore to monitor land cover and land-use change through tools
such as Corine land cover. Data on land-cover change in Europe from 2000–2006 show that
growth in built-up areas and forest land leads to a continued loss of agricultural land. In turn,
global economic and environmental change will increasingly influence the way Europeans use
land (e.g. as communities work to mitigate and adapt to climate change). Policy responses are
needed to help resolve conflicting land-use demands and to guide land-use intensity to support
environmental land management.
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The European environment – state and outlook 2010
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Thematic assessments
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Freshwater quality — SOER 2010 thematic assessment
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The continuing presence of a range of pollutants in a number of Europe's freshwaters threatens aquatic ecosystems and raises concerns for public health. Current reporting under the EU Water Framework Directive shows that a substantial proportion of Europe's freshwaters are at risk of not achieving the aim of 'good status' by 2015. Driven by the EU Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD), improvements in the collection and treatment of wastewater in some regions of Europe have led to a reduction in the discharge of some pollutants to fresh and coastal waters. Challenges remain, however, because UWWTD implementation remains incomplete and other significant sources of water pollution exist, especially agriculture and urban storm flows. The implementation of effective and timely measures, required under the WFD, needs to encompass a greater focus on controls 'at source' and the efficient use of resources including water, energy and chemicals.
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The European environment – state and outlook 2010
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Thematic assessments
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10 messages for 2010 - Agricultural ecosystems
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Within the framework of the CAP, the last 50 years have seen increasing attention to biodiversity, but
without clear benefits so far. With agriculture covering about half of EU land area, Europe's biodiversity is linked inextricably to
agricultural practices, creating valuable agro-ecosystems across the whole of Europe.
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Publications
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Distribution and targeting of the CAP budget from a biodiversity perspective
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The EU has highlighted the importance of using the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) to prevent the abandonment of high nature value farmland and its intensification as a key action to halt biodiversity decline. The present report sets out to assess whether the current distribution of CAP funds is likely to favour the maintenance of farmland with high nature value (HNV). And it explores the extent to which CAP funds are likely to support the long-term economic and ecological sustainability of these HNV farming systems.
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Publications
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EEA Signals 2009 - Key environmental issues facing Europe
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Signals is published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) at the start of each year and provides snapshot stories on issues of interest both to the environmental policy debate and the wider public for the upcoming year. The eight stories addressed are not exhaustive but have been selected on the basis of their relevance to the current environmental policy debate in Europe. They address priority issues of climate change, nature and biodiversity, the use of natural resources and health.
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