FEATURE
Analysis : How do the EU farmer protests relate to climate change ?
Orla Dwyer
Current Address : Carbon Brief Reprinted From : Carbon Brief
F rom Berlin and Paris , to Brussels and
Bucharest , European farmers have driven their tractors to the streets in protest over recent weeks .
According to reports , these agricultural protesters from across the European Union have a series of concerns , including competition from cheaper imports , rising costs of energy and fertiliser , and environmental rules .
Farmers ’ groups in countries including Belgium , France , Germany , Greece , Lithuania , Poland and Romania have all been protesting over the past couple of months .
The UK ’ s Sunday Telegraph has tried to frame the protests as a “ net-zero revolt ” with several other media outlets saying the farmers have been rallying against climate or “ green ” rules .
Carbon Brief has analysed the key demands from farmer groups in seven countries to determine how they are related to greenhouse gas emissions , climate change , biodiversity or conservation .
The findings show that many of the issues farmers are raising are directly and indirectly related to these issues . But some are not related at all . Several are based on policy measures that have not yet taken effect , such as the EU ’ s nature restoration law and a South American trade agreement .
Why farmers are protesting
The issues EU farmers are raising centre around “ falling sale prices , rising costs , heavy regulation , powerful and domineering retailers , debt , climate change and cheap foreign imports ”, the Guardian reported .
Figure 1 . Each one is classified around whether the concern is related to climate change and / or greenhouse gas emissions ( green ), biodiversity and / or conservation ( yellow ), or not related to either set of issues ( red ). Note , this table is not exhaustive . Get the dataCreated with Datawrapper
05 Grassroots Vol 24 No 1 March 2024