Climate change will impact “all aspects” of Irish agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warned today (Thursday, January 25) as it published Ireland’s first Climate Change Assessment Report (ICCA).
The report highlights that while climate change may lead to increases in productivity for some crops, there is the likelihood of intense droughts which would result in increasing crop losses.
Climate change would according to the new ICCA report also lead to pests and pathogens having an “increased impact on arable and livestock farming, while increases in precipitation amounts and intensity would increase nutrient washout from land with consequent impacts on water quality”.
It also warns that “significant mitigation” is needed in agriculture to deliver “deep emission reductions” and outlined that “reducing livestock numbers and adopting different land use strategies are likely to be necessary”.
The EPA, which led the team who compiled the report, described it today as the “first comprehensive and authoritative assessment of the state of knowledge of climate change in Ireland”.
It is based on scientific research and “observations in Ireland” linked to EU and global research and highlights that people in Ireland are “living and experiencing a changing climate”.
“In line with global trends, 16 of the 20 warmest years in Ireland have occurred since 1990,” the report outlines.
EPA
Laura Burke, EPA director general, believes the ICCA report “represents a major contribution to our understanding of the impacts and challenges experienced and posed by climate change in Ireland”.
“The assessment provides a picture of where Ireland is in its response the climate emergency. It provides insights as to the scale of the challenge for Ireland to become climate neutral and climate resilient.
“It reinforces the need for Ireland to pick up the pace of action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to our changed and future climate,” she added.
One key finding identified in the first ICCA report is that Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions have reduced in all sectors “except agriculture”.
The report outlines that compared other EU countries Ireland has higher than average emissions of methane and nitrous oxide “because we have the highest contribution from agriculture to our national total emissions”.
“A legal basis for deep, rapid and sustained national emissions cuts now exists, although current policy and action remain insufficient to meet these aims.
The pathway forward is clearer for energy, transport and the built environment than for agriculture and land use. For all sectors there are many challenges to overcome,” it states.
The report also sets out that “deep emission reductions” within the agriculture and land use sectors are a critical aspect of Ireland’s efforts to mitigate climate change.
“Optimal use of no-regret livestock management measures, including increasing the dairy economic breeding Index, improving herd genetics, improving animal health and promoting efficient feeding strategies, will help in reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” it details.
But the ICCA report warns that there is currently a “critical research gap in determining the specific levels of emissions that can feasibly be balanced with land use practice”.
“The research on land use, land use change and forestry suggests that the primary means to get to net zero for this sector is through unprecedented rates of afforestation and the rewetting of organic soil along with a significant reduction in herd numbers.
“The majority of the mitigation options available in Ireland are still in the early implementation stages, and there is an urgent need for Ireland to explore various diversification strategies to enable deep mitigation,” it states.
One of the key conclusions in the ICCA report is that “significant mitigation is needed in agriculture” in relation to climate change.
But it also warns that there will be a number of challenges on this front.
According to the ICCA these “include the slow rate of uptake, cost of equipment, knowledge transfer and enabling the market, along with the wide array of barriers faced by farmers and land managers”.
“Innovations such as feed additives to reduce biogenic methane emissions and the use of protected urea to reduce nitrous oxide emissions are still in the early stages of implementation in Ireland”, it notes.
ICCA Report
The ICCA report also sets out that to “reduce nitrous oxide emissions” options include “no-regret mitigation measures include changing to low-emission fertiliser types and optimal use of slurry and legumes to increase the efficiency of nitrogen use”.
It highlights that in addition to these options “legumes, including clovers, can provide nitrogen to a sward through a symbiotic relationship with Rhizobium bacteria, which fixes atmospheric nitrogen into plant-usable forms”.
According to the authors of the report “mitigation and adaptation options” in agriculture, forestry and other land use could be scaled up over the next 10 years to provide “opportunities for rural communities”.