LAMASUS Stakeholder Board meeting
The second LAMASUS stakeholder workshop was conducted on March 6th and 7th, 2024. In Hohenkammer, Germany, 18 stakeholders and 18 project team members met. Two representatives from the LAMASUS Policy Advisory Board, Simon Kay, a representative of the European Commission DG CLIMA, and Anastassios Haniotis, formely DG AGRI, now IIASA, participated remotely and on-site.
Petr Havlík welcomed the stakeholders and reiterated the role of LAMASUS to provide guidance for the formulation and implementation of Green Deal policies. Moreover, he highlighted the need to provide policy pathways to support sound EU and country level decision making. Tamás Krisztin provided an overview of the main LAMASUS progress achieved since the first stakeholder meeting and highlighted examples of how stakeholder
feedback from the first workshop was used in the project.
Simon Kay’s presentation unveiled the complexities of EU land use policies in the context of climate change, emphasizing the necessary transition to a climate-neutral Europe and highlighting challenges and anticipated changes in land use. He outlined the 2040 outlook, the distribution of the expected carbon sink across sectors, and discussed the interconnected policies of the Green Deal, particularly in agriculture land management. Stakeholders expressed concerns about the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) development process, including the absence of carbon storage measurement and bureaucratic hurdles. Their inquiries ranged from the exclusion of agroforestry from carbon removal calculations to the role of wood in the Emissions Trading System (ETS). Franz Sinabell echoed concerns from landowners regarding policy objectives’ convolution affecting land use and speculated about satellite monitoring systems’ potential to unlock carbon potential while minimizing bureaucratic burdens.
Tassos Haniotis delivered a keynote address highlighting the need for comprehensive analyses to establish quantitative targets in agriculture. He provided insights into the economic dimensions of agriculture, highlighting three key areas of importance: Commodity price cycles, energy prices, and consumption patterns, as well as the importance of analytical uncertainties resulting from surging energy prices and the war in Ukraine, which affect cost and demand for agricultural products.
The remainder of day 1 focused on in-depth discussions and gathering feedback for the beta version of the LAMASUS geodatabase. During breakout sessions, participants provided input on five themes: forestry, marginal grasslands, nutrient management, agroforestry and small landscape elements, and peatlands.
Day 2 started with a demonstration of the potential modelling impacts of LAMASUS research.
Participants were split into three groups to discuss research on carbon accounting, biodiversity, and costing for policymaking in Europe. Subsequently, stakeholders were informed on the proposed and ongoing ex-post analysis work, as well as the data sources which will be made available to the public. A plenary discussion on policy priorities allowed 6 stakeholders to provide their expertise, recommendations, and wishes for the project’s next steps. Concerns were raised about the Common Agricultural Policy development process, including carbon storage measurement and bureaucratic challenges.
The workshop ended with a brief discussion on the stakeholder involvement and the coming year expectations from the project.