Sean Kelly sets out food security as EU priority
“The food industry is our biggest employer in Europe and is essential to maintaining strong domestic food production,” he said.
The South of Ireland MEP has called for a sensible approach to be taken on agriculture. Food production and climate change are already being pitched against one another ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference, known as COP21, due to take place in Paris in December.
“The deal we reach must recognise the relative limited potential to reduce greenhouse gases in agriculture but acknowledge its critical role in food security,” said Mr Kelly.
“We must ensure coherence between the EU’s food security and climate change objectives. Our milk and meat production has progressively become less emission-intensive in the EU and this trend of course should be strengthened.
“However, we have a level of efficiency that is higher than several of our competitors. For this reason, we must be cautious, as putting in place overly severe mitigation actions that would displace EU production would clearly be counterproductive.”
The COP21 conference will attempt to agree on a global legally binding agreement to combat climate change.
Mr Kelly was appointed in April to the role of leading the European Parliament’s committee on Industry, Research, and Energy in the discussions and will play a key role in the coming months.
