Agriculture & Land Management

Our Work

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) continues to be a major driver of land use and management decisions. The integration of environmental objectives and measures into the CAP has been a long and incremental process. IEEP has been closely involved in seeking to improve the environmental focus of the CAP over successive reforms since the 1980s. We provide informed analysis and innovative thinking to stimulate debates, building on our in-depth understanding of this policy area.

Our work seeks to provide the evidence base for refocussing the CAP towards environmental objectives.  We seek to enhance the way in which the CAP supports the provision of environmental goods and services through influencing the management of agricultural and forest land. Our work in this area focuses on:

  • Innovative thinking to inform future policy design
  • Advice and guidance on mainstreaming environmental and climate issues within the CAP
  • Developing suitable monitoring and evaluation frameworks, including the design of indicators
  • Evaluating the environmental impacts of the CAP implementation choices made by Member States

We have pan-European experience and detailed knowledge of the intricacies of both Pillars of the CAP and the different funding opportunities available in both. In particular, our expertise covers cross-compliance, green direct payments, support within Areas of Natural Constraint, and rural development measures that can be used for environmental purposes, especially the agri-environment-climate measure. IEEP played an important role in providing evidence to inform the discussions on reforming the CAP post 2014. We have contributed to the provision of guidance on mainstreaming climate and biodiversity priorities within the CAP and on tracking climate and biodiversity expenditure under both Pillar 1 and within rural development programmes.

More about our work in this area...

Latest in Future of the CAP

  • What contributions can agricultural emissions make to the proposed Effort Sharing Regulation?

    New IEEP report finds the agriculture sector can significantly contribute to the EU’s climate commitments by reducing its non-CO2 emissions. It also finds these contributions can be delivered cost efficiently with environmental co-benefits without impacting production.

  • CAP greening: what are its environmental prospects?

    A significant injection of money was agreed for ‘green’ farming practices under the recent CAP reform. This report examines the environmental impact these measures are likely to have on the ground and concludes that Member States’ implementation choices appear to have much diminished the chances of the greening measures delivering significant additional environmental benefits.

  • The Manual: Chapter 13 - Sectoral policies

    This is a chapter of IEEP’s Manual of European Environmental Policy. This chapter sets out the development of some of the most important links between EU environmental policy and other policy areas, such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, transport, trade, and so on.

  • Systemic approach to adaptation to climate change and renewable energy harnessing (Biomass and Mini-hydro)

    Biochar has the potential to both mitigate greenhouse gases, and to act as an adaptation measure in terms of responding to the impacts of climate change. Based on its compatibility with the appropriate soil properties, it could increase the resilience of soil to erosion.

Related

Highlights

  • What contributions can agricultural emissions make to the proposed Effort Sharing Regulation?

    New IEEP report finds the agriculture sector can significantly contribute to the EU’s climate commitments by reducing its non-CO2 emissions. It also finds these contributions can be delivered cost efficiently with environmental co-benefits without impacting production.

  • CAP greening: what are its environmental prospects?

    A significant injection of money was agreed for ‘green’ farming practices under the recent CAP reform. This report examines the environmental impact these measures are likely to have on the ground and concludes that Member States’ implementation choices appear to have much diminished the chances of the greening measures delivering significant additional environmental benefits.