Billions in Misspent EU Agricultural Subsidies Could Support the Sustainable Development Goals
Open accessAbstract
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the guiding policy for agriculture and the largest single budget item in the European Union (EU). Agriculture is essential to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but the CAP's contribution to do so is uncertain. We analyzed the distribution of €59.4 billion of 2015 CAP payments and show that current CAP spending exacerbates income inequality within agriculture, while little funding supports climate-friendly and biodiverse farming regions. More than €24 billion of 2015 CAP direct payments went to regions where average farm incomes are already above the EU median income. A further €2.5 billion in rural development payments went to primarily urban areas. Effective monitoring indicators are also missing. We recommend redirecting and better monitoring CAP payments toward achieving the environmental, sustainability, and rural development goals stated in the CAP's new objectives, which would support the SDGs, the European Green Deal, and green COVID-19 recovery.
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Scown et al. estimated that subsidies in the CAP supported high-pollution practices in agriculture and low nature-value farmland, as well as increasing income inequality.
“Scown et al. (129), who estimated that subsidies in the CAP (common agricultural policy) supported high-pollution practices in agriculture and low nature-value farmland, as well as increasing income inequality.”
From Restoring Degraded Lands (2021) · cites this paper as [129]
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Reducing food's environmental impacts through producers and consumers
Poore, J., & Nemecek, T. (2018) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aaq0216 · Cited by 6,085 · see citing works
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Arneth, A., Olsson, L., Cowie, A., Erb, K.-H., Hurlbert, M., Kurz, W. A., Mirzabaev, A., & Rounsevell, M. D. A. (2021) · Annual Review of Environment and Resources · doi:10.1146/annurev-environ-012320-054809 · Cited by 106 · see citing works
- Authors
- Scown, M. W., Brady, M. V., & Nicholas, K. A.
- Affiliations
- Lund University (SE)
- Corresponding author
- Scown, Murray W.
- Venue
- One Earth
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-08
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 237-250
- ISSN
- 2590-3322 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7441947
- OpenAlex
- W3080321886
- Cited by
- 235
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 24 · 2025: 38 · 2024: 44 · 2023: 47 · 2022: 39 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 9 · 2016: 6
- FWCI
- 46.55
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- One Earth (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Epsilon Open Archive (Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet biblioteket (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences)) (acceptedVersion)
- Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Lund University Publications (Lund University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Vetenskapsrådet
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agricultural Economics and Policy
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Agricultural economics and policies
- Social Sciences › Law › EU Law and Policy Analysis
- Keywords
- Common Agricultural Policy, agricultural subsidies, Sustainable Development Goals, direct payments, biodiversity, farm income, European Green Deal, European Union
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