The Common Agricultural Policy beyond 2020: A critical review in light of global environmental goals

Abstract

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is currently undergoing a reform process which is embedded in a political context that is required to effectively and urgently respond to climate change and biodiversity loss. The CAP beyond 2020 has to be in line with the international goals of the Paris Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity and at the same time foster mitigation strategies for increasingly challenging natural conditions to secure food security in the long term. Yet, despite the fact that the above-mentioned objectives call for a complete reorientation of the subsidy scheme, this article shows that the reform proposal does not provide the instruments needed to adequately address these objectives, although a few promising approaches (e.g. ‘eco-schemes’) have been put on the reform agenda.