'Net Zero' Dropped by EU After Farmers' Protests --Brussels removes order to reduce emissions linked to agriculture after mounting anger across Europe. | 9 Feb 2024 | Brussels removes order to reduce emissions linked to agriculture after mounting anger across Europe. The European Union has caved in to angry protests from farmers and cut a target to slash agricultural emissions as part of the bloc's "net zero" drive. A demand to reduce nitrogen, methane and other emissions linked to farming by almost a third has been removed from a wider Brussels plan to cut "greenhouse gas" emissions by 90 per cent by 2040. On Tuesday, Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, also proposed withdrawing the EU’s plan to halve the use of pesticides, calling it a "symbol of polarisation." "Our farmers deserve to be listened to," she told the European Parliament.