The Kyoto Protocol and the Effect of Existing and Planned Measures in the Agricultural and Forestry Sector in the EU25

Agricultural and forestry activities cover the majority of the EU territory: in particular agriculture is the main lad use type, accounting for more than 41% of the land use in the EU15, while in the new Member States this share ranges between 30 and 60 %, whereas forestry is the second. The role of agriculture as both a source of and as a sink of greenhouse gases (GHG) varies significantly because of the diversity of production systems adopted by farmers and of the environmental conditions in Europe. The effectiveness of the policy measures adopted so far in the agro-forestry sector to meet the Kyoto target are reported in the National Communications to the UNFCC which now reached its 4th edition. National Communication were used in this reports as the main source of information to develop a country by country survey of policy measure - both from a qualitative and a quantitative perspective - allowing to understand the progresses the Members States are making towards their commitments, also thanks to a comparative assessment of this release with the previous communications to the UNFCC. Although not all members’ states did provide quantitative estimations, the comparison of the third fourth edition of the National Communication showed that almost all the countries have revised their estimations and projections of GHG emissions. It is also worth noting that that even though the measures reported at the country level still respond mainly to Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) requirements or to the improvement of air and water quality standards, the issue of climate change has become increasingly prominent in the design of agro-forestry development strategies.