In Europe, we are currently consuming an area of land one and a half times the size of our continent. This amount is increasing and as a continent Europe is putting more and more pressure on the limited land the planet has left.
Our current land footprint is pushing up food prices, driving land-grabs, contributing to climate change and biodiversity loss, and increasing social inequalities.
Friends of the Earth believes urgent measures are needed to monitor and reduce Europe’s global land use.
Please join us in writing to the European Union to tell decision-makers to make reducing Europe’s global land use footprint a political priority.
Friends of the Earth groups in Austria, Malta, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, France, Italy and England, Wales and Northern Ireland have launched an e-action asking supporters to write to the European Commissioner for the Environment, Janez Poto?nik. In June he is due to attend a high level discussion on how to measure Europe’s land use and he can bring Europe’s citizens voices to the table.
Europeans are more dependent on foreign land to provide imported products than any other region in the world. 60% of this comes from outside our boundaries.
The average European citizen consumes 1.3 hectares of land per year, whereas countries such as China or India use less than 0.4 hectares per person.
Please add your voice to tell the European Union that Europe’s global land use must be monitored, including the total amount of land consumed outside the continent. Measures must include the introduction of binding targets as part of Europe’s ‘Roadmap towards a Resource Efficient Europe’.
The inclusion of the land footprint in all policy impact assessments is the only way to ensure that the EU doesn’t adopt policies that increase our land footprint, such as the biofuel targets for renewable energy in transport.
If you are from Austria, Malta, The Netherlands, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Hungary, the Czech Republic or England, Wales and Northern Ireland, you can follow the link to the e-action on the Friends of the Earth website for your country.
