Soil is essential in the debate on how we tackle climate change
While climate change takes a toll on agriculture and land use contributes to warming the planet, soils still find little attention from policymakers in their climate strategies.
“Soil is a completely underestimated issue when we talk about climate change,” said Andrea Kohl, Programme Director at the WWF.
Kohl was speaking at the last session of a two-day public consultation conference organised by the European Commission on 10-11 July.
“Soil is essential in the debate on how we tackle climate change,” Kohl reminded the audience, underlining that “the release of just a small fraction of the soil carbon stock can offset savings achieved elsewhere.”
The session at Brussels University was focussed on the role of natural resources as part of Europe’s strategy for long-term emissions reduction.
The European Commission is working on a long-term strategy for climate change, which will contain several pathways to 2050, including one where the EU achieves carbon neutrality by mid-century.
The 2050 strategy will be published in November, just before the United Nation’s annual climate conference in Katowice, Poland, on 3-14 December. The European Council mandated the Commission to come up with a 2050 climate strategy during a summit of EU leaders in March.
