Chance to curb livestock pollution snubbed as EU Parliament fails to include cattle, pig and poultry in new law

13 Jul 2023 --- The European Parliament has failed to deliver on its promise of a green and sustainable industrial policy, according to the European Environmental Bureau (EEB). In a series of votes on the Industrial Emissions Directive and the Construction Products Regulation, EEB says the lawmakers sided with the interests of polluting sectors, such as industrial livestock farming and missed the opportunity to prevent pollution at source and protect human health and the environment.

The EEB highlights that despite comprising only 13% of farms, livestock farms account for 60% of ammonia and 43% of all EU’s methane emissions.

In what the green organizations flag as a “complete lack of consideration for environmental and public health protection,” the EU Parliament decided to leave cattle outside of the law alongside pigs and poultry, “forcing a regulatory backtracking and contributing to an uneven playing field for industry.”

“The text voted on is a roadblock for progress, favoring business-as-usual. Construction products, a significant climate burden in Europe, had a chance for transformation, but the opportunity was missed. This collective failure leaves the weight of construction’s climate impacts unchanged, casting a shadow on our hopes for a sustainable future,” says Laetitia Aumont, policy officer for circular and carbon-neutral built environment at the EEB.

“It is highly disappointing to see that a majority of European lawmakers chose to defend the vested interests of the livestock industry over the health of the people they’re supposed to represent,” adds Célia Nyssens, senior policy officer for agriculture and food systems at the EEB.

The new rules, had they incorporated provisions for cattle, would have brought €5.5 billion (US$6.06 billion) of benefits yearly for the EU’s environment and health, estimates the environmentalist.

The EU Parliament decided to leave cattle outside of the law alongside pigs and poultry.Disregarding EEB’s report
In October, the EEB presented an analysis and recommendation to create a cleaner EU industrial production. 

The report highlighted the extent of the environmental and health damages caused by the EU’s livestock sector, which is responsible for 12-17% of the EU’s total greenhouse gas emissions. 

Intensive livestock rearing and aquaculture concentrate large numbers of animals or fish in small areas, leading to high levels of air, soil and water pollution. They also require large amounts of feed, the production of which also causes environmental problems.

Furthermore, the report highlighted the harmful effects of ammonia and methane emissions from agriculture, which are precursors for air pollutants that affect human health and ecosystems. 

The report also warned that nitrates pollution from agriculture seriously degrades water quality across the EU, making it unfit for human consumption and causing eutrophication of rivers, lakes, coastal waters and marine waters. It estimated that the cost of water pollution from agriculture due to excess nitrogen and phosphorus is more than €22 billion (US$24.25 billion) per year.

With the analysis, EEB was hopeful that some improvements in intensive rearing activities were covered in the law. However, the new law, as mentioned, didn’t include livestock provisions.

“This vote was a disgrace due to dogmatic and ill-informed actions regarding the real implications of the livestock scope and a generalized polluters-complacent stance. Once again, decisionmakers missed the opportunity to protect people and the environment but also level the playing field for frontrunner industries. Why should we settle for business-as-usual, burdening society with significant costs for years to come?” underscores Christian Schaible, head of zero pollution industry at EEB. 

Edited by Marc Cervera