Agriculture

Key messages

• The agricultural sector is not only a major driver of climate change but is also seriously affected by it. Policy efforts are, therefore, not only geared to climate mitigation in agriculture, but also to making the sector more robust and minimizing climate change impacts.

• The EU Adaptation strategy, the LULUCF Regulation and the EU Common Agricultural Policy are instruments that can be used to stimulate adaptation solutions and improve resilience of the agriculture sector to climate risks. Adaptation knowledge and practitioners’ networks have emerged that facilitate information exchange and capacity building, including from several EU funded research programmes.

• Monitoring, reporting and evaluation of agricultural measures at EU level will to a large extent depend on the formal reporting mechanism under the reformed Common Agricultural Policy.

Impacts, vulnerabilities and risks

The agricultural sector is one of the main drivers of climate change, emitting methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O) and carbon dioxide (CO₂), mainly related to livestock production, including manure management, and fertiliser application. The share in European greenhouse gas emissions is currently around 10%, excluding upstream emissions in countries from which Europe imports food and fodder. In turn, climate change affects European agriculture and requires agricultural systems and farmers to adapt. Rising temperatures and atmospheric CO₂ concentration, changes in precipitation patterns and more frequent extreme events influence crop yields and livestock productivity in Europe, but also water management and conditions for transport and storage. Crop productivity is expected to generally decrease in Southern regions and to increase in the north. In addition, more frequent extreme weather events will cause widespread and detrimental impacts all across Europe.

The European Climate Risk Assessment identified several major climate risks to European food systems. Risks to crop production because of water and heat stress being most severe and urgent, with southern Europe being a hotspot region. Climate impacts on food production can cascade to rural and coastal livelihoods, land use, the health of socially vulnerable populations, and the wider economy.

Policy framework

The EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change, adopted in 2021, aims to make adaptation smarter, faster (accelerate rollout of adaptation solutions) and more systemic (integrated solutions and plans). Stimulating local adaptation, nature-based solutions, sustainable uses and resilience of fresh water resources, are particularly relevant for the agricultural sector, whereas stepping up international action is essential to avoid disruption of EU agricultural imports.

The proposals for adjustment of the Land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) regulation aim for increased carbon capture in agriculture and forestry, with important land cover change implications. The measures to achieve this, such as maintenance of grasslands, carbon farming and restoration of peatlands, will also help prevent soil erosion and reduce flood risk.

Concrete adaptation measures in the agricultural sector are primarily supported through the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP), with sustainability and climate action as core objectives. Under the CAP strengthened obligatory measures to protect the environment and more funding opportunities are established for forest management, management of less favored areas and eco-schemes. For example, on every farm at least 3% of arable land has to be dedicated to biodiversity and non-productive elements, with a possibility to receive support via eco-schemes to achieve 7%. Dedicated adaptation measures have not played a prominent role in the CAP until now, but the obligatory and voluntary greening measures often provide short to medium term adaptive solutions at farm level. A green payment  under CAP Pillar 1 covers crop diversification, establishment of ecological focus areas and maintenance of permanent grassland. Rural development support under CAP Pillar 2 includes forest development, agri-environment-climate measures, organic farming, and Natura 2000 payments. The funding schemes are supplemented with training measures and other support to improve productivity and resilience to climate change from the Farm Advisory System, the Innovation Partnership and applied research.

In line with European Green Deal, the Farm to Fork Strategy, and the Biodiversity strategy, the CAP proposals for 2023-2027 put more emphasis on environmental and climate action. Obligatory measures and more funding opportunities are established for the preservation of carbon rich soils, crop rotation, nutrient management and eco-schemes.

Improving the knowledge base

The 2024  European Climate Risk Assessment provides a comprehensive assessment of the major climate risks facing Europe today and in the future. It identifies 36 major climate risks that threaten our energy and food security, ecosystems, infrastructure, water resources, financial systems, and people’s health  also considering the risk for the agriculture sector.

Climate exposed sectors like the agricultural sector are especially vulnerable to climate change according to the IPCC AR6 WG II report Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Increased risk of extreme weather events, drought, flood and changes in the growing conditions are projected. Effective options for adaptation include breeding for climate adaptive , or selection for resilient crop/cultivars, agroforestry, landscape diversification and urban agriculture.

The IPCC Special Report on global warming of 1.5 °C addressed impacts on the agricultural sector in various chapters, pointing to related adaptation needs. Enhancing the knowledge in these areas, including on costs and benefits of agriculture-related adaptation measures, is a priority. The IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land assesses the current scientific knowledge, including on land degradation, desertification and food security, issue framing and adaptation options, as well as on specific challenges and opportunities for the agriculture sector.

The EEA Report Climate change adaptation in the agriculture sector in Europe gives an overview of how EU policies and programmes address climate change adaptation and includes examples of feasible and successful adaptation actions.

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) supports the European Commission in modelling the economic impact of climate change on the agricultural sector, and evaluating adaptation and mitigation policies (e.g., the PESETA projects). Several research projects dealing with adaptation in the agriculture sector have been funded under LIFE (e.g., AgriAdapt, ADAPT2CLIMA, LiveAdapt, etc) and H2020 (e.g., MOSES, BINGO, COACCH, Flourish, FATIMA, RUN4LIFE, RESFOOD, IoF2020) programmes.

Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) provides information, tools and data about climate change, including several demonstrator services for the Agricultural sector. It offers free and open access to the Sectoral Information System (SIS) available from Climate Data Store to support regional adaptation initiatives. Further services for the water sector provide water indicators that can be used to select appropriate crops and plan irrigation infrastructure, as well as demonstrations in Climate Change Adaptation. The Copernicus Land Monitoring Service provides remote sensing data on Land Cover and Land Cover Changes, Vegetation Phenology and Productivity that will help defining crop yield. In future, remote sensing data may inform about regional land cover changes resulting from adaptation measures, as well as about aggregated trends at EU level.

The Joint Programming Initiative on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change focuses research in 24 countries on addressing the interconnected challenges of sustainable agriculture, food security and impacts of climate change.

Several international networks, organizations and associations share knowledge within their communities of practice. They include the European Conservation Agriculture Federation, the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (European Regional Group), and COPA-COGECA. 

Supporting investment and funding

EU funding for adaptation is supported by the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021-2027 which ensures that climate adaptation actions have been integrated into all the major EU spending programmes.

Within this MFF budget, €386.6 billion is allocated to the CAP. The bulk, €270 billion, of the expenditure will go to income support under pillar 1, with an additional €20 billion being labelled for market support. The rest (roughly one quarter) will be spent on rural development support under the pillar 2.

Additional funds will be available through the EU's Horizon Europe research programme to support specific research and innovation in food, agriculture, rural development and the bio-economy.

The EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change supports regions, cities and local authorities in their efforts to build resilience against the impacts of climate change, providing funding as part of Horizon Europe, the EU Framework Programmes for research and innovation. Regions and local authorities in countries associated with Horizon Europe or in countries negotiating association to Horizon Europe can be involved in the Mission actions. Companies may also be eligible to participate, for instance as innovators providing innovative solutions or climate services. Funding opportunities may be found on the Funding and Tenders Portal, in particular under the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023-2024.

In the CAP Strategic Plans, close to €98 billion, corresponding to 32% of the total CAP funding (EU and co-financing) will be devoted to delivering benefits for the climate, water, soil, air, biodiversity and animal welfare, and to encourage practices beyond the mandatory conditionality.

Apart from the CAP investments, a range of EU instruments is available to support adaptation:

• the LIFE Climate Action Sub-programme;
• the INTERREG Europe Programme;
• the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, particularly relevant for adaptation in the agricultural sector is Cluster 6 on Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment.

A comprehensive overview can be found on the EU funding of adaptation measures page.

MRE of adaptation

A reporting mechanism linked to the national strategic plans for CAP in the agricultural sector has been developed and a corresponding indicator framework has been adopted for the performance report for sharing aggregated national level overviews.