On February 6-8, in Strasbourg, Raivis Kronbergs, the State Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, will participate in an informal meeting of the Council of Ministers for Agriculture and Fishery, organized by the French presidency of the EU Council. The topic of discussion – “Carbon binding agriculture”.
As it is known, for EU to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, it is very essential to facilitate carbon sequestration in soil. It can be achieved by reducing amounts of glasshouse gas emissions and increasing carbon soil sequestration in agricultural and forestry sectors as well. In December 2021, the European Commission published the communication on sustainable carbon cycles to motivate farmers and forest owners to implement sustainable carbon sequestration practices.
In Latvia’s opinion, upon implementation of carbon binding agriculture, regional and geographical differences of Member States must be taken into account – as these differences are very considerable, uniform conditions and restrictions must not be applied to all the EU Member States.
Raivis Kronbergs, MoA State Secretary, emphasizes, ”On the way to achievement of the EU objectives of climate neutrality such conditions must be put in place, which will not hinder land use and management therefore, emission reduction and carbon sequestration methods favorable for agriculture and forestry must be chosen. Agricultural and forest land is Latvia’s wealth. This a limited resource and it must be use efficiently and sustainably.”