International climate agreements, like COP21, have initiated a new era for climate policies. The livestock sector has potential to contributing to mitigating climate impact. In the EU, the sector accounts for 40% of global agricultural emissions or 7% of total emissions, producing about 2,400 Mt of CO₂ equivalent annually, but also methane and NO2. Enteric emissions, emissions from manure and land use change (LUC) due to deforestation for feed production are among the principal contributors.

Thanks to significant efforts, the livestock sector in Europe is starting to contribute to mitigation of climate impacts (SDG 13). R&I, new technologies and relevant incentives to implementation of best practices may enable the livestock sector to come close to CO2 neutrality for monogastrics and to achieve a 40% reduction for ruminants. Ways to proceed include implementing mitigation options and enhancing carbon storage under grasslands soils.

Climate targets should be integrated into a holistic approach to avoid trade-offs and foster a sustainable use of resources, preservation of biodiversity and improvement of soil quality. Future solutions need to optimise multiple factors through a systems approach, which takes into account the interplay between the system components.

The ATF seminar would like to engage discussion with farmers, industries, scientists, policy makers and with the society. It is a follow up of the EAAP & ATF Special Session held during the EAAP Annual Meeting.

Provisional programme

10:00 Welcome & outcomes of the 7th ATF-EAAP special session of Aug. 26th (by Jean-Louis Peyraud, ATF President)

10:10 Public policies: Expectations towards livestock farming (to be announced)

10:25 Demand driving food systems (to be announced)

10:40 Having another look on methane (by John Lynch, Oxford University)

10:55 The environmental footprint of animal foods: beware of simplifications (by Fédéric Leroy, BAMST)

11:10 C sequestration in soils, restoration of abandoned lands (soils and biodiversity) with pastures, legumes and animals (by Tiago Domingos, Terraprima)

11:25 Questions & Answers

11:30 Coffee break

11:45 PANEL DISCUSSION  - Moderated by Martin Scholten, WUR, with the audience and Tassos Haniotis (DG Agri - European Commission), Valeria Forlin (DG Clima - European Commission), Angelantonio D'Amario (UECBV), Iris Bouwers (LTO), Faustine Bas-Defossez (IEEP)...

12:55 Conclusion and closing (by Jean-Louis Peyraud, ATF President)

Free event but mandatory registration online (number of participants limited - registration before October 27th)