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Impact of Environmental Agreements on the Common Agricultural Policy

Start date: 01.04.2004
Duration of project: 36 months
Project co-ordinator: Tamsin Cooper, IEEP
European Commission Project Scientific Officer: Hans-Joerg Lutzeyer Directorate General Research
Project ref: SSPE-CT-2004-503604
Specific Targeted Research Project of the Sixth Research Framework Programme of the EU on Sustainable Development, Global Change and Ecosystems

This three year Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) STREP project is undertaken by a consortium of 9 research organisations from 5 EU countries, in collaboration with independent experts from the new Member States, is concerned with the implications of implementing the Kyoto Protocol of the Convention on Climate Change and Convention on Biological Diversity in the agricultural sector in the EU. The expected final result is a strategy for integration of these agreements within the Common Agricultural Policy.

Project Background

By ratifying a range of international environmental agreements, the EC has entered into binding commitments which potentially stretch many years ahead. This project is concerned with two of the most important international agreements for agriculture and the rural economy in Europe:

Whilst the obligations under the CBD are generally less specific than those under the UNFCCC/Kyoto Protocol, the Convention has been supplemented by a new World Summit on Sustainable Development objective of halting the loss in biodiversity by 2010. This is also an EU objective, as set out in the EU Sustainable Development Strategy and the 6th Environment Action Programme, which runs to 2012. Both the European Community and all individual Member States are parties to the CBD and the UNFCCC. Obligations fall on all the parties (although uncertainties arising from the delayed ratification of the Kyoto Protocol need to be taken into account). Legal competence in these areas is shared, resting partly with the Community and partly with Member States. Precision on this point is important, not least with respect to impacts. The project is original in seeking to consider the steps required for the agricultural and rural development policies to respond to the agreements in an integrated way and on a European scale, including the Candidate Countries. Read more...

Project objectives
The research has four primary objectives. All are largely empirical and of direct policy relevance. It should also contribute to the body of scientific research on the effectiveness of international environmental agreements, and on the interaction between international agreements and EU policy. The primary objectives are: 1. To make an assessment of the exact obligations falling on the Community with respect to agriculture in the fulfilment of commitments under the Kyoto Protocol and the CBD, clarifying how agriculture could contribute relative to other sectors of the economy and land users. 2. To undertake an analysis of the most appropriate adaptations and innovations in the agricultural sector required to meet the new objectives and obligations. It will focus on efficiency, particularly in economic terms, effectiveness concerning different environmental outcomes and compatibility with other objectives and constraints, at the farm and wider national and EU levels. Interactions between CBD and Kyoto Protocol driven measures need to be exposed and analysed. Afforestation and forest management issues need to be considered alongside agricultural adaptations. 3. To make an assessment of how far these changes at farm level and upwards require alterations in policy, both at the national and EU levels. Policy change may be needed in the environmental, agricultural, forestry, research, regional support or other policy domains. The main focus will be on agricultural and rural development policies, especially those within the CAP. Specific measures of relevance to Candidate Countries will be identified. 4. To complete and disseminate an integrated strategy for implementation of the two agreements in the EU agricultural sector, including concrete policy recommendations applicable at a European level such as good agricultural practice. Effectively this will combine the responses required for both the CBD and the Kyoto Protocol. This will be undertaken in the final year of the project. The project is intended to contribute both to the specific objectives and to the wider requirements of European policy development. For example it is intended to be relevant to the implementation of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy, the Sixth Environmental Action Plan and the development of the CAP for an enlarged EU after 2006. In doing so it will provide a specific example of how the broader objective of developing multifunctional and sustainable agriculture in Europe can be translated into practice. It is also hoped to draw broader conclusions about the potential impact of other multilateral environmental agreements on agricultural policy in the EU. These conclusions will be presented as part of the final report. Read more...