COPA and COGECA, the umbrella organisations representing farming organisations and cooperatives in the European Union, praised the decisions of EU environment ministers on carbon markets and food waste.
The farming groups said their work on carbon markets had led environment ministers to adopt a “balanced document”.
“The common approach takes into account farm realities and allows appropriate flexibility for the use of carbon credits in the voluntary market. Copa and Cogeca look forward to defending these improvements in upcoming institutional tripartite consultations,” they said.
“COPA and COGECA particularly welcome the possibility of learning about the verification process for claims on agricultural practices that already fall under the environmental framework of the Common Agricultural Policy (a 'simplified procedure'), calling it a 'decision that goes in the right direction also in the context of the CAP simplification'.”
“COPA and COGECA welcome the decision of Environment Ministers to retain the Carbon Removal Certification Framework in the common approach by allowing operators to use carbon credits to offset their emissions, while maintaining the original proposal's requirement that they transparently communicate about the credits used. This option for operators will further efforts to meet the EU's climate goals.”
In a separate news release, COPA and COGECA said they “welcome” the compromise on food waste because it is “proportionate to the challenges and based on the ambition to prevent food waste and achieve a more circular economy, while taking into account national specificities.”
“As active members of the EU Platform on Food Loss and Food Waste since its creation, COPA and COGECA support the EU's ambition to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals of halving food waste at the retail and consumer levels by 2030 and to reduce food losses along the rest of the food supply chain,” the organisation explained.
“Copa and Cogeca view the proposed food waste reduction targets as ambitious but realistic, as outlined in the Commission’s impact assessment, as positive, and adopt a phased approach through review provisions.”
“By proposing mandatory targets that include not only the consumption and retail stages but also processing and manufacturing, the EU is already going beyond the UN SDGs and is consequently on track to honour its national and international commitments by 2030.
“Beyond the level and scope of binding targets, the general approach aims to improve data collection while focusing on clarifying the text for legal certainty. Common methodologies and minimum quality requirements for uniformly measuring levels of food waste are absolutely necessary for comparison and prevention.”
“We look forward to tripartite talks, which are expected to begin in the autumn, and hope that their outcome will reflect the compromise reached today.”



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