Carbon dioxide being captured out of the atmosphere by soils, grasslands, hedgerows and trees on Irish farms is finally going to be included when calculating the climate impact of the agriculture sector, as part of a new EU climate plan.

Under its recently published 2030 Climate Target Plan, the European Commission said it intends to create a new sector for reporting the climate impact of the agriculture sector in Europe, which will be known as the agriculture, forestry and land use sector, or AFOLU for short.

For the first time, this expanded AFOLU sector will allow carbon removed from the atmosphere by soils, grasslands, hedgerows, trees and farm forestry to be counted against emissions from agriculture to leave a net figure that more accurately represents the climate impact of agriculture, which is something farmers have long argued for.

The European Commission wants this new sector to rapidly become climate-neutral by 2035, where the carbon removals by trees, soils and hedgerows more than offsets the carbon emissions from farming, such as methane.

Welcomed

Prof John Fitzgerald, chair of Ireland’s climate change advisory council, said he broadly welcomed the EU’s new proposals on climate reporting.

However, Irish farmers have a long way to go before soil sequestered by their natural grasslands and hedgerows can be counted against the emissions from livestock.

The European Commission has said C02 removals from soils, trees and hedgerows will only be counted if it can be measured in a robust scientific and certified system.

The reason C02 removals by Irish grasslands and hedgerows are currently given very limited recognition in official carbon inventories is that it has proved difficult to accurately measure soil carbon sequestration.

Measuring the C02 being captured by Irish grassland soils and hedgerows will require investment and research to meet the certified standards.