This chapter examines the options available to reduce agricultural emissions in the EU, discusses why reducing agricultural emissions appears so difficult, and asks how agriculture could make a bigger contribution to emissions reductions in the future. The chapter focuses narrowly on agricultural emissions as defined in the UNFCCC inventory accounts, as emissions and removals in the land use sector are covered in a separate chapter. The chapter examines the toolbox available to incentivise the abatement of agricultural emissions, paying particular attention to the instruments available under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as well as dietary change. To date, the abatement that can be attributed to the CAP is modest, but the level of ambition is increasing over time. As part of its European Green Deal strategy, the Commission has proposed to revamp the EU’s climate policy architecture through its ‘Fit for 55’ package to create a combined agriculture and land use pillar with its own reduction targets. This could have significant implications for the way in which the mitigation of agricultural emissions is pursued in the future.
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