Abstract
Agricultural land use covers almost half of the EU territory and reducing nutrient and pesticide losses to freshwaters is central to existing EU policy. However, the progress of improving freshwater quality and reducing eutrophication is slow and lags behind targets. The Green Deal is a key element of the EU plans to implement the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals. Here, we discuss the opportunities that the Green Deal and associated strategies may provide for the achievement of the water quality goals of the Water Framework Directive in agricultural landscapes. We welcome Green Deal's aspirational stated goals. However, the reliance of mitigation of diffuse agricultural pollution on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy represents grave risks for practical implementation and the achievement of the Green Deal objectives. We also argue that the new strategies should be targeted at tackling and understanding the sources of water quality problems along the full pollution continuum. To maximise the opportunities for tackling diffuse pollution from agricultural land use and achieving the delayed water quality targets, we stress that a range of targeted new instruments will be needed to close the gaps in the pollution continuum ‘from source to impact’. These gaps include: (I) smart and standardised monitoring of the impacts of proposed eco-schemes and agri-environment-climate measures, (ii) active restoration of agricultural streams and ditches and their floodplains to reduce secondary pollution sources, (iii) options to draw down nutrient levels to or below the agronomic optimum that reduce legacy sources, (iv) integrating farm-scale and catchment-scale analysis of trade-offs in reducing different pollutants and their combined effects, and finally (v) accounting for emerging pressures to freshwater quality due to climate change. Incorporation of the pollution continuum framework into tackling diffuse agricultural pollution will ensure that the European water-related policy goals are achieved.
Highlights
Agricultural land use covers almost half of the EU territory
We explore whether and how this new policy framework can contribute to improving EU freshwater quality and help to achieve the delayed Water Framework Directive (WFD) targets
As the current proposals leave much of the diffuse pollution continuum to the new but untested reformed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), there is a great and tangible risk that the Green Deal strategy may come to represent another missed opportunity to improving EU freshwater quality
Summary
Agricultural land use covers almost half of the EU territory. The sector is responsible for half of the total EU water usage (European Commission, 2017) and reducing agricultural pollution to freshwaters, i.e. nutrient and pesticide losses, is central to existing EU policy (Water Framework, Groundwater, Nitrates, and Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directives). A recent report (European Environment Agency, 2018) showed that 60% of European water bodies fail to achieve good ecological and good chemical status The reasons for this slow improvement can be (partly) attributed to the ongoing problems with the implementation of the EUs flagship policy regulating freshwater quality, the Water Framework Directive (WFD) (Carvalho et al, 2019; Voulvoulis et al, 2017). Since the adoption of the Water Framework and Nitrates Directives, scientific evidence has shown that quick fixes to freshwater quality might be elusive due to the intrinsic complexity of freshwater ecosystems and their catchments (Bol et al, 2018) In this opinion piece, we explore whether and how this new policy framework can contribute to improving EU freshwater quality and help to achieve the delayed WFD targets. Holistic monitoring and management approaches, e.g., simultaneously targeting different types of sources (primary, secondary, and legacy), stressors (nutrients, sediments, pesticides, and other pollutants including micro pollutants) and pressures on freshwaters (eutrophication, erosion, climate change) are needed
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