– Currently, public money in the EU is paying for bad performance. Instead of using resources to move towards the Sustainable Development Goals, we found a disconnect between the intent of subsidies, like supporting farmer livelihoods and biodiversity, and the situation on the ground, says Kimberly Nicholas, Professor at Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS).
The new research paper, published in Communications Earth & Environment, identifies hotspots for sustainable and unsustainable agriculture in Europe by analysing social and environmental outcomes from agriculture in 283 districts. Researchers Kimberly Nicholas and Murray Scown performed their analysis by applying a set of 24 indicators that cover both social and environmental impacts from agriculture. Social indicators include aspects such as rural purchasing power, energy use, farm income, and risk of poverty, whereas environmental indicators relate to groundwater quality, soil erosion, bird diversity, pesticide use, and greenhouse gas emissions, for example. The indicators were derived from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and designed to measure impacts specifically from European agriculture.
Only two bright spots for sustainable agriculture
Their results show that in all of Europe, there are only two bright spots for sustainable agriculture, scoring high, or above average, on both environmental and social outcomes. They are located in the Nordics (Sweden and Finland) and in Central Europe (including most of Germany, all of Austria, Luxembourg, parts of Switzerland, and small western portions of Slovakia and Czechia). The study also identified five so-called dragspots, which scored below the European average on social and environmental impacts. These regions covered parts of the Balkans (northern Romania and southeast Bulgaria, also including southeast Hungary), the Lowlands (the Netherlands and Belgium), Northern Italy, Southern Italy and Malta, and Southern Spain. The analysis also highlights trade-offs between environmental and social outcomes – finding if one is high, the other is often low. This tradeoff suggests that the agricultural sector is struggling to ensure the protection of both livelihoods as well as the environment.
– Balancing trade-offs between societal development and environmental protection, and finding and maximising synergies between them, are some of the most pressing tasks for sustainable development globally and for European agriculture, says Murray Scown, Associate Senior Lecturer at LUCSUS.
Dragspots receive high levels of CAP support
The researchers also analysed the average payment from the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, per hectare in each brightspot and dragspot—as well as in all other regions – to find out how well EU subsidies contribute to environmental and social sustainability. They found that dragspots generally receive high levels of CAP support, indicating that public resources are being paid to areas that are not moving towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. For example, the dragspots of Northern Italy, Lowlands and Southern Italy receive the highest level of support per hectare. For the bright spots, by contrast, the results showed that they received very different amounts, where the Nordics received considerably less per hectare than the Central Europe brightspot.
– The net result from our analysis is that the CAP is not fulfilling its aim of protecting rural livelihoods and the environment. This is worrying since it is the EU’s largest subsidy scheme, and agriculture is also one of the most emitting sectors, says Murray Scown.
However, some of the most underperforming regions, such as Southern Italy and the Lowlands, score high in food production – which is another of the CAP’s aims.
– There is tension between maintaining high food production while at the same time working towards achieving healthy ecosystems and resilient communities. Global studies have shown it’s possible to feed the world with sustainable agriculture, but to achieve that, we also need to overhaul how we currently subsidise agriculture in Europe, says Kimberly Nicholas.
Download the article: Rural land systems both support and hinder the Sustainable Development Goals across Europe. It is published in Communications Earth & Environment.
Article highlights and key takeaways from Kimberly Nicholas’ newsletter, We Can Fix It.
