WG Sustainability in Ag. held a meeting on November 16, 2022 : Discussion on Sustainability label

During this meeting, participants had a discussion on sustainable label: for irrigated farms, partnership with other associations (Irrigants d’Europe, national associations, …), how to define the requirement to apply a specific label (logo and claim). 

Need to define: concepts, requirements, pricing for farmers and companies, matrix of sustainable parameters and scores.  Identify an agency to support such process. 

The questions should be defined by blocks: equipment, operation and its installation, water and its management, soil, tillage and its performance, crop and its management.  Share definitions and propose scores.  Pricing to be discussed: need a certification agency to help. 

A few days after was organized an information meeting by Ambrosetti House gathering differnt direction of the EU commission, key Italian water actors and some representative of the professionals. 

Ambrosetti House Valor Acqua event  25/11/22, Bruxels and on-line

The EIA participated in Abrosetti house event, on 25/11/2022, on-line. This information meeting gathered different direction of the EU commission, key Italian water actors and some representative of the professionals. 

DG Ag, Farm to fork strategy, Pasquale Di Rubbo : reduction of pesticides by 50%, fertilizers 20%, development of organic farming 25% by 2030 (9% today), soil fertility.  Bringing the different EU directions (Ind, Res, Env and Ag), sustainability labelling anticipated.  CAP, to help transition (rural dev prg), with strategic plans implemented nationally to better fit local needs.  9 objectives among which preserving resources is the key.  Legal limits: 25% of budget for ecoscheme (includes water eff and resilience, savings, techno, protection…), knowledge transfer to farmer through advisory services (AKIS) integrated in a global strategy plans that define clear rules for long term.  More resilient farm sector: initiatives on seeds (new breeding techniques, more water resistant…), lower risk pesticides.  Example of tool developed in Italy: Irriframe^[1][1], 40k farmers in Emilia Romagna irrigation advisory system saved 50bm³ in 2022 compared to previous similar climatic year. 

Irrigants d’Europe, Adriano Battilani: irrigation in the front line, foster innovation adoption, managing around 75% of the irrigated surface in Europe.  Climate change is pushing, saving potential remains important, increasing need for irrigation, needs for strategic supply thinking process, this is the key to avoid huge losses due to improper supply.  More autonomy required=less water use. 

Sustainable finance in EU Taxonomy, Valerio De Molli and Benedetta Brioschi: Arrival of sustainable bonds that progressively impact more on ag and water management.  Survey conducted over the extended value chain, and contribution to 6 of the SDGs.  EU Taxonomy for sustainability of activities^[2][2], in the framework of the GreenDeal, application reported by 73% of the operator on energy, 60% point the difficulty of assessment (data, unclear criteria, thresholds). 

European investment bank, Thomas Van Gilst: unique event in Europe, support to European policy, with priorities corresponding to EU policies.  Importance of climate impact is the key, in general following the taxonomy while impulsing other banks to follow it.  Progressively taxonomy will frame all the financing, even if very ambitious in terms of data required. 

Sustainability requires investment to fulfil taxonomy priorities, an advertising from Schneider is presented, value of the water will be the point and hence who will pay for it? 

Valerio de Molli, Ambrosetti House: tableau de bord of sustanability according to SDG criterion, from ranking KPI from 1 to 10.  Then synthetic indicators are proposed.  10 of the SDG are directly impacted by water.  41 indicators and measurable KPI over time are used.  See SDG12… see the operational tool presented next Marsh… 

Water Europe, Claudia Topalli: social sustainability to be addressed (LCA), environmental labelling of products standardized, PEF and OEF, UNEP social guidelines. 

EIA, Bruno Molle: outline of activity and priorities of the association. 

Closing remarks: the community is very active, through communication prog and dissemination material.  Final event Valore Aqua in Roma, Mars 22^nd 2023.  Next steps: 16^th of January, next meeting on smart and digital water, 30^th of January policy proposals.