It is clear that the objectives of the agricultural sector in the United States and in the European Union are disparate. The United States Secretary of Agriculture declared Europe’s plan to make agriculture more sustainable could stifle innovation, reduce agricultural production and put transatlantic trade at risk.
However, the EU Commissioner says quality, Janusz Wojciechowski claims that quality is what counts.
The United States bets on quantity
Why indeed, the US Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, criticized the EU’s “Farm to Fork” strategy and the continent’s reluctance to use new technologies in agriculture, in a heated debate on how to make the production of food to be more sustainable.
Obviously, the US administration is concerned that farm-to-table and biodiversity strategies are extremely prohibitive for trade and jeopardize the sale of their products in Europe.
“We will not be on track to meet our food needs if we continue to impose policies that restrict growth and stifle innovation,” said Perdue.
“Our ambition is to be competitive in the world market, not in the quantity of food production, but in quality,” Wojciechowski replied.
A dilemma for farmers
There is no doubt that European farmers face an uncomfortable dilemma. To make operations more sustainable, they need to reduce the use of pesticides and fertilizers, while trying to increase yields so that the EU can become less dependent on food imports.
In this sense, the United States favors the use of technologies such as gene editing and precision improvement, along with modern pesticides and fertilizers, which are promised, will be less harmful to the environment than previous products.
However, and as you may have read in previous CONSOLE Blog entries, the European Commission has developed a farm-to-fork strategy that aims to reduce the use of fertilizers by 30 percent and deliver 25 percent of the land agricultural to organic agriculture. The next EU research program, Horizon Europe, will allocate money to projects focused on improving soil health and reducing the use of pesticides and antibiotics in agriculture by 2030.
According to the twenty-fifth Conference of the Parties (COP25), the Climate Change is a cross-cutting issue that affects different areas, including agriculture and forests.
This is determined in the agreement “Chile-Madrid Time to Act” with which the COP25 of the United Nations Climate concluded on Sunday in Madrid.
The agreement sets the stage for greater ambition in the face of the climate emergency and opens a new cycle in these actions-based United Nations meetings and that all participants do faster and faster.
COP25’s executive leaders attended the closing plenary session of the conference in Madrid on Sunday. Photograph: Óscar del Pozo/AFP via Getty Images
These are ten of the main keys of a document and a summit organized in record time, with discrepancies between negotiators and which, in line with previous meetings, has required extending negotiations for two additional days.
The negotiation started on Monday 2th, should have been closed on Friday 13 th and ended on Sunday 15 th
GREATER AMBITION
Increasing the ambition of countries in the face of Climate Change has been one of the key themes of this summit. The first draft was described as insufficient and criticized by several countries and non-governmental entities for not delving into this matter clearly. After its reformulation, the agreement calls for an increase in the ambition of the commitments to combat climate change following the calendar set in the Paris Agreement. Lays the groundwork for 2020 countries to make more ambitious emission reduction commitments (NDCs) to respond to the climate emergency in the face of the Glasgow COP26.
ROLE OF SCIENCE
The Chile-Madrid agreement of COP25 recognizes that climate policies must be permanently updated based on the advances of Science. It also recognizes the role of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and thanks the two special reports published by this agency in 2019, on land and ocean use.
TRANSVERSALITY
The Madrid summit confirms that the fight against climate change is a cross-cutting issue that affects areas such as finance, science, industry, energy, transport, forests or agriculture, among others.
Ministers from all fields and numerous countries have shown at the COP25 in Madrid that they assume the climate agenda as their own.
OCEANS AND SOIL USES
These points have been two of the most debated in the plenary, given Brazil’s attempt to withdraw the article, although it finally joined the general position. The text recognizes the importance of the oceans in the climate system and in response to the IPCC special reports published during 2019, the Climate Convention will hold a dialogue on oceans and another on land use a June 2020 session.
GENDER
A new Gender Action Plan is agreed to promote the participation of women in international climate negotiation, develop measures to respond to the unequal effect of climate change on women and girls, and promote their role as agents of change towards emission free world. It will be valid until 2025 in which it will be reviewed.
FINANCING LOSSES AND DAMAGES
The agreement contemplates giving guidelines to the Green Climate Fund so that, for the first time, it allocates resources against the losses and damages suffered by the countries most vulnerable to extreme climatic phenomena. This was one of the most requested issues of small island states that suffer more directly from these effects. Urges developed countries to provide financial resources to help developing countries.
MARKETS
The regulation of carbon markets has been one of the most debated issues during this COP(development of article 6 of the Paris agreement). Initially included in the document, its debate was finally decided separately. Many delegates had anticipated that a non-agreement is better at this point, rather than a bad agreement.
MULTILATERALISM
In the words of the Spanish minister Teresa Ribera “COP25 is a reaffirmation of the value of multilateralism and international cooperation to solve a global challenge such as climate change.” “Even in complex global contexts, COP25 has not dropped the climate agenda at a fundamental time for the implementation of the Paris Agreement. On the contrary, he has exhibited an activist multilateralism.”
FAIR AND SOCIETY TRANSITION
The importance of the social dimension at COP25 is recognized and that people must be at the centre of the response to the climate crisis. In this sense, the agreement “Chile-Madrid Time to act” reflects the “imperative” that the transition to a world free of emissions should be fair, and promote the creation of decent and quality employment.
NEW CYCLE
Negotiators recognize the importance of non-governmental actors in climate action and invite them to increase their action. The existence of a global governance framework such as the Paris agreement and its rule book means that COP’s are no longer forums for setting rules, but a new cycle is opened based on all participants doing faster and faster.
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