C 152/194
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
6.4.2022
2.5.
The land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector can contribute to climate change mitigation by maintaining and enhancing sinks and carbon stocks.
The Commission proposes policies to help forest managers ensure more climate benefits when producing wood products and incentivise farmers to pursue climate-smart and sustainable agriculture practices.
3.
General comments 3.1.
The European Civil Society is very much engaged in the fight against climate change and strongly agrees that there is a need to introduce effective and immediate actions.
The EESC believes that a concerted effort is needed from both public and private entities to raise awareness on the stringent need act now, ensure active involvement and ownership by citizens and local communities, and to generate additional funding to support the transition to a low-carbon economy.
The EU can no longer waste time in lengthy discussions.
3.2.
The LULUCF sector has decreased its net CO2 removals by a fifth (4), mainly because of increased wood harvesting and a lack of incentives.
Furthermore, Europe was hit by unprecedented forest fires and floods, which coincided with record droughts and heatwaves.
Forests have also been particularly vulnerable to insect outbreaks, with wetlands suffering from continuous degradation.
While significant increases in the land sink can be achieved at a relatively low cost, actions must be stepped up in all land uses, including improved forest and cropland management, and afforestation.
3.3.
The EESC points out that there are various ways to increase carbon sequestration, including land management, forest regeneration and the restoration of natural ecosystems.
Climate change and biodiversity loss are interlinked and must be addressed together.
Habitat loss, pollution, overharvesting and the spread of invasive species need to be tackled to ensure that natural ecosystems are preserved and the vital social and economic role of land-based sectors is fulfilled.
3.4.
Member States should create national strategies for preserving and rewetting of high quality peatlands, as they represent an important opportunity to protect and increase the carbon stocks in organic soils and ensure biodiversity restoration.
Therefore, the EESC suggests that one of the most important objectives should be the restoration of high quality peatlands (using paludiculture (5)) and wetlands, and considers that wetland emissions should be accounted for as soon as possible and not only from 2026 onwards, as the European Commission proposes.
3.5.
Research indicates that large wildfires have contributed to net carbon emissions for decades and hamper the regrowth of vegetation.
Water management, especially retention of water in the soil and storage of water in reservoirs, can greatly improve the capacity to mitigate and fight fires.
At the same time, it enhances resilience against intense rainfall, floods and droughts.
The EESC therefore recommends that the Commission stimulate and support Member States in improving water management policies in order to increase agricultural productivity and carbon sequestration capacity.
3.6.
Farmers and forest managers need to be incentivised to pursue new sustainable business models that foster biodiversity and apply circular economy rules.
The EESC has already called for a complex and fair legislative framework that would ‘enable landowners and land managers to implement effective LULUCF measures in a way that makes economic sense and not only at their own cost’ (6).
It is now up to each Member State to design these important incentive frameworks according to their own specific circumstances.
The EESC has already encouraged Member States ‘to provide ambitious national, bottom-up policies for the LULUCF sector, with the close involvement of civil society in the process at national, regional and local levels’ (7).
3.7.
Discussions have to continue on how forests should be managed and which parts of trees can be used for energy.
While the European Commission proposal on the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (8) prohibits the extraction of biomass from primary forests and introduces restrictions on burning certain types of wood, it fails to recognise the current good practices where different kinds of trees and different parts of trees are used for the purpose they are best suited for, thus generating optimal overall added value without wasting natural resources.
The EESC calls for national legislative frameworks in all Member States that support and incentivise the use of sustainable practices in biomass production.
(4) (5) (6) (7) (8)
SWD(2021) 610 final.
Cropping under wet conditions.
EESC opinion on Land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) (OJ C 351, 15.11.2012, p. 85).
EESC opinion on the Effort Sharing Decision in the 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework and Emissions and removals from land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) (OJ C 75, 10.3.2017, p. 103).
European Commission — Renewable Energy Directive revision.