Brussels – The European Commission’s ‘sustainable carbon cycles’ plan, announced today, risks becoming an excuse for big polluters to stall their own climate action, Greenpeace has warned.
The Commission’s plan promises funding and new legislation to create certified removals of carbon from the atmosphere via farmland, forests or expensive machinery to be traded in carbon markets, allowing polluting industries to buy them as offsets, instead of reducing their own greenhouse gas emissions.
Greenpeace EU agriculture policy director Marco Contiero said: “Protecting and restoring forests, and better management of farmed soils to absorb carbon is great, but it mustn’t be used as cover for industrial farming and other sectors to keep polluting. Real cuts in greenhouse gas emissions have to be the priority – carbon removals can add to cuts, but we can’t let polluters use removals to pretend they’re reaching climate targets.”
The new plan pledges support to unproven technologies, like carbon capture and storage, and suggests combining them with large-scale burning of wood for energy (BECCS – bioenergy with carbon capture and storage), despite warnings from scientists. The plan also leaves the door open for the EU to take part in international offsetting markets, one of the most controversial topics of international climate negotiations at COP26 in Glasgow.
Contacts:
Marco Contiero, Greenpeace EU agriculture policy director: +32 (0)477 77 70 34, [email protected]
Greenpeace EU press desk: +32 (0)2 274 1911, [email protected]
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