Germany needs more climate-friendly livestock farming – minister

Germany’s agriculture ministry plans to boost sustainable forestry and sees the need for more climate-friendly livestock farming in order to achieve the agricultural sector’s emission reduction targets, federal agriculture minister Julia Klöckner (CDU) told the Rheinsche Post in an interview. A 10-point plan drafted by her ministry would ensure that the sector cut its annual greenhouse gas emissions by 14 million tons by 2030, she said. And this “without a carbon tax, which the environment minister has proposed and now obviously does not pursue further. That tax is unnecessary,” Klöckner said. Forestry was one of the key levers for climate protection. “Put simply: the use of wood from sustainable forestry qualifies as active climate protection.”

Read her interview here and get the background on emissions in farming and forestry in the CLEW dossier on the wicked task of feeding 83 million in a climate-friendly way.