Addressing climate change through agricultural research and innovation

Rethinking land use

Addressing climate change and its impacts

Impacts of climate change such as higher temperatures, changing weather patterns, with extreme flood events, and prolonged droughts are becoming increasingly evident. People working with and on the land are most directly affected. To limit further concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere, emissions must be cut through mitigation measures and carbon sequestration must be strengthened, while resilience against unavoidable impacts must be built through adaptation measures.

Agriculture accounts for 11% of direct GHG emissions in the EU, with much higher shares in some countries and in overall emissions of two particularly powerful GHGs: methane (mainly from livestock farming) and nitrous oxide (mainly from soil management and fertiliser use). While agricultural GHG emissions in the EU have fallen since 1990, the decrease has slowed down over time. Research and innovation (R&I) is needed to achieve necessary further reductions, through technological innovation and changes in agricultural practices, and to inform policy making.

Strengthening carbon removals in land use

While some changes in land use, such as conversion of grassland into arable fields, result in additional emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂), other land-use practices also provide opportunities to remove CO₂ from the atmosphere by storing carbon in soil and in above-ground biomass. In addition to emission reductions, such land-based carbon removals play an important role in achieving the EU’s 2050 climate neutrality goal. R&I is identifying and developing different options for carbon-removing practices as well as addressing social and technological challenges involved in their widespread application.