Ireland joins global effort to cut agricultural methane
John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy for climate affairs, said agriculture accounts for about 33% of global carbon emissions, and attaining climate neutrality would only be possible by implementing transformative solutions for agricultural systems.
Ireland will join the International Enteric Fermentation Accelerator, described as the world’s largest single research effort to reduce agricultural methane emissions.
Some of the world's top scientists will take part in the Accelerator, developing new technology for use on farm, financed by about €200m of international investment.
The decision to join the Accelerator was announced by Minister of State with special responsibility for research and innovation at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon.
He was speaking at the summit meeting in Washington of the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM4C), the international initiative investing about €13bn in climate-smart agriculture and food, to address climate change and global hunger.
About €10bn comes from about 40 governments, the rest is from the private sector and not-for-profit partners.
The initiative's partnerships have expanded to include over 500 governmental and non-governmental organisations.
The International Enteric Fermentation Accelerator is one of 51 AIM4C innovation "sprints" funded with over €3bn.
At the summit meeting, US president Joe Biden stated: "Agricultural innovations have successfully safeguarded and enhanced the lives of billions worldwide. By working together, we can further strengthen global food supplies, boost farmers' incomes, and protect our planet for future generations who rely on our actions today."
AIM4C is a collaboration between the US and the United Arab Emirates, which will host the Cop28 climate change conference.
“We will make sure that Cop28 will be a game-changer for food systems," said Mariam bint Mohammed Saeed Hareb Almheiri, the UAE's minister of climate change and cnvironment.
John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy for climate affairs, said agriculture accounts for about 33% of global carbon emissions, and attaining climate neutrality would only be possible by implementing transformative solutions for agricultural systems.
He described the challenge as a crucial battle that must be won by applying practical solutions, as many lives depend on it.
At the AIM4C Summit, Mr Heydon highlighted Ireland's efforts to become a world leader in sustainable food.
One of the 28 public sessions over three days was entitled "Ireland’s Agri-Food Sector Transformation Deep Demonstration", featuring our ambitious agri-food plans to reduce emissions 25% by 2030 and to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.
Delegates heard how Ireland’s Agriculture Department has partnered with EIT Climate-KIC (Europe’s largest climate innovation partnership) to accelerate climate action.
EIT Climate-KIC will apply its "Deep Demonstration" model of innovation, from soil to farm to fork to society, developing and deploying co-ordinated innovation that works in practice and at scale, to help the Irish land and agri-food systems reach environmental, social and economic targets.
Other Irish AIM4C speakers included the DAFM's Bill Callanan, chief agricultural inspector, and Edwina Love, head of climate change and bioenergy policy division; as well as Karen Daly, senior research officer at Teagasc, and Tom Arnold who chaired the Food Vision 2030 stakeholder committee.
Mr Heydon said: "To meet the UN sustainability goals of addressing climate change while also achieving zero hunger, there is a collective responsibility to find a way to meet the competing demands of land use while ensuring our food productions systems continue to produce food but with fewer emissions.
"The answer is innovation, but these innovations need to be implemented. To help deliver an accelerated pathway, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine have partnered with EIT Climate KIC to support national climate action in the agriculture sector.”
Mr Heydon announced increased funding. “Our increased ambition will provide for an increase of just under €9.5m compared to 2020, and it will bring our total investment in climate-related research to over €25m out to 2025.”
Another AIM4C summit session, on the need for healthy soils to sequester carbon, was also addressed by Karen Daly and Mr Heydon.
Also in Washington, Minister Heydon, with New Zealand's Minister Damien O’Connor, opened the 2023 Joint Research Call for projects in the countries' joint research collaboration on agriculture and climate. Researchers are working in areas such as feed additives, rumen microbiota, and animal genetics, and breeding for lower emissions.
In the latter area, Ireland is celebrating the success of the Greenbreed project's publication of the world’s first national genomic evaluations for methane emissions in Irish beef cattle. This will enable breeding programmes to reduce daily methane emissions in beef cattle.
Greenbreed is a €3m project involving Teagasc, Southeast Technological University, Munster Technological University, and ICBF, which identified large differences in daily methane emissions between animals fed the same diet (of which 11% is due to genetic differences).
Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue said: "I believe we are standing on the precipice of a major breakthrough that will be a game changer in our drive to reduce agricultural emissions".
Greenbreed is led by Professor Donagh Berry at Teagasc.
Innovation of this kind is important for fulfilling the Global Methane Pledge goal of reducing methane emissions by 30% by 2030.
Also at AIM4C, it was announced that the Agriculture Breakthrough Agenda, launched by 45 world leaders at Cop26, has expanded to include 16 countries, including Ireland.
It is an international plan to co-ordinate and strengthen collective climate action year-on-year.
AIM4C delegates discussed "The Power of Soil: Uplifting Rural Communities". Soils are one of the largest carbon sinks, but the world’s cultivated soils have lost more than 50% of their carbon stocks.
On the future of food, former White House chef Sam Kass told the summit the next generation won’t have access to foods like chocolate, shellfish, or pistachios, due to climate change.
The session on "Restoring Productivity to Degraded Cropland and Pastures" heard that Syngenta and partners have improved more than 64,000 hectares in Brazil's Cerrado region. This project will continue, with total investments of up to €460m.
The world's severely skewed fertiliser use was highlighted. In high-input agriculture, typically in the Global North, more than half of the fertiliser used is lost to the environment, driving emissions and pollution. Yet these materials essential for increasing crop yields and ensuring food security are under-used in other parts of the world.
Delegates also heard of a plan to reach 600m smallholder farmers with next-generation weather information.
In another session, tools that use satellite observations to precisely manage irrigation and improve agricultural water use efficiency were demonstrated. Annual water savings of over 200bn gallons could be realised in California's perennial crops.
It was highlighted that more climate-resilient and just food systems require addressing gender inequalities, and elevating women’s agency and leadership in responding to the climate crisis.
The Grand Challenge was launched, an AIM4C partnership with leading academic institutions and chief scientists of America’s top technology companies, to leverage the power of artificial intelligence and machine-learning for climate action.
Another AIM4C initiative is to overcome bottlenecks between scientific advances in plant breeding and small-scale farmers who need to access climate-smart varieties.
There was a warning at the summit that global demand for meat continues to rise, and protein diversification was a critical need. Companies were diversifying into new sources of climate-smart protein. But the climate opportunity in alternative proteins remained largely untapped. A plan to double global bean, pea, lentil, pulse and legume consumption in five years was announced.
The AIM4C summit heard that adoption of climate-friendly farming practices is still quite low, with cover crops used on only 5.1% of cropland in the USA, and the no-till acreage was only 21% in 2017. Barriers to adoption include the extra costs and knowledge required to manage more complex systems.
