Tomorrow will be the final vote on the CAP. We, the youth, are watching every move the European Parliament make as our environmental destruction will impact the rest of the world. If the CAP is not voted down tomorrow, it will mean it will be virtually impossible to keep to the Paris Agreement targets and we can kiss the emission-reduction-target-by-2030 goodbye. It is imperative for current and future generations that this CAP is voted down, yet no media are covering it. They are getting away with murder (pretty much literally) while we are distracted with other things. We must not let them get away with this and will never forgive them if they do. If you tweet anything today, make it this hashtag: #VoteThisCAPDown.
Why are people calling for the CAP to be voted down? Here’s some statistics:
- It will cost 400 billion of taxpayer’s money.
- Member states will have to spend 60% of basic income support which will go to the most profitable and intensive farming regions.
- Non-environmental payments will count towards the environmental budget which will ultimately decrease it and on top of this, member states will have to spend at least 30% on economic and competitiveness objectives.
- They have limited the maximum amount that can be spent on environmental schemes so even if we can persuade agriculture ministries to fund them, there’s a limit to what they can invest.
- Member states will be actively prevented from setting a more effective environmental baseline for subsidies.
- The ban on ploughing converting permanent grasslands in 2000 sites that are protected natural areas will be lifted, meaning more biodiversity and carbon rich grasslands in nature reserves will be under threat of conversion to maize fields.
- It will delete the need for farmers to have a tool for more sustainable use of nutrients, meanwhile agriculture is the biggest source of nitrate pollution in watering the EU which is responsible for dead zones and toxic algae.
- It will mean taxpayers will continue to pay for drained peatlands, which currently accounts for 25% of ag GHG emissions.
If you found what you read useful, please consider donating to help me sustain this blog and fulfil my dream of going to university:
Anna Kernahan 