There has been considerable speculation since publication of the Commission’s proposals for the MFF and for the CAP 2028-2034 in July for what they might mean for climate and environmental ambition in the next programming cycle. The Commission’s Vision for Agriculture and Food Communication had underlined that the call in von der Leyen’s Political Guidelines for “a better balance between incentives, investments and regulation” should be interpreted as giving greater flexibility to farmers and shifting from conditions to incentives. To achieve the same level of climate and environmental ambition through a voluntary approach only using incentives implies the need for significant additional resources. But the Commission’s MFF proposal implies a probable cut in CAP resources, leaving open the question whether the existing level of ambition for these objectives can even be maintained.
In this post, I examine the Commission proposals under three headings: where climate and environmental action fit within the hierarchy of CAP objectives, innovations in the design of relevant interventions that can impact on the ability to achieve ambitious targets; and the likely level of resources to be available to support such action.… Read the rest
