Bijdragen plenaire verga­dering over de richtlijn indu­striële emissies

Anja Hazekamp (PvdD): Thank you, chair and thank you European Commission also for your introduction.

We welcome the inclusion of intensive animal farming and the lowering of the threshold for poultry and pig farms in the revision of the IED. There is a serious urgency for strong legislation for agricultural emissions of greenhouse gasses and pollutants. Not only from pigs and poultry farms but also from other farm animals such as cattle. We therefore welcome the inclusion of cattle farming in the proposal.

As we all know, the Netherlands and Belgium, the problems resulting from ammonia nitrites and nitrates emissions from intensive agro-industry are enormous.

These problems have been piling up over years and years, meanwhile farmers have been misled to think that business as usual was okay. Now, it is very clear: business as usual it is not okay.

Let us be clear to farmers, let us now take responsibility for the health of our environment and the health of all the inhabitants of this planet.

We need to include the entire intensive animal-industry in the IED, not only the largest farms.

Let us not be naive in claiming that new technologies will save us. The Court in the Netherlands showed already that many technologies are not suitable and not sufficient to solve the environmental problems we have. Technologies such as low-emission floors, air filters, they just do not work efficiently. The most efficient way to drastically reduce emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gasses, is to drastically decrease the number of animals kept in the agro-industry and starting with animals in factory farms. And let us not wait until 2029, let’s start immediately.

Thank you.