EIT Climate-KIC moves Ireland towards climate neutrality

How do we decarbonize agri-food systems, while ensuring farmer communities are thriving? EIT Climate-KIC is supporting Ireland, a global agricultural heavyweight, to radically transform its food system towards climate neutrality with an innovative approach.

Find our press kit here.

Decarbonizing agriculture and food production is one of the biggest challenges of this decade. Ireland’s agri-food sector contributes 37% of the country’s overall greenhouse gas emissions. Yet the country has committed to cut 25% emissions in the agri-food sector by 2030, and to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, in line with the EU bloc.

Climate-smart agriculture and food systems innovation play a key role, but they cannot work as single-point technologies: what we need is large-scale transformation. As EIT Climate-KIC experts join world agri-climate leaders at the Aim4Climate summit in Washington, DC this week, their discussions are going to test and shape the global approach at COP28.

About EIT Climate-KIC and the Ireland Deep Demonstration of sustainable food systems

EIT Climate-KIC, Europe’s largest climate innovation initiative, has led systems change and innovation programmes for over a decade. Today, it is supporting the Irish government to transform the entire agri-food sector and achieve collective, systemic change while retaining economic, social and environmental prosperity.

We are working with farmers, businesses, policymakers, researchers and citizens to create and implement tailored solutions to sustainability challenges, while ensuring we are learning from each other and collectively pushing forward climate action.

One year in, the partnership has:

• Achieved a comprehensive mapping of the system, providing the context to identify the multiple ‘levers of change’ that need to be pulled to change the system, such as sustainable consumption trends, renewable energy, sector demographic, education, and increasing attractiveness of biodiversity and nature-based solutions (agroforestry, crop rotation etc.).
• Identified concrete ways to overcome challenges for farmer communities and citizens (reducing emissions; diversifying incomes; cutting food waste; shift to healthy diets). These include both immediate outcomes in dairy farm emission reduction, sustainable beef production, carbon farming and tillage, as well as long-term objectives such as investing in new value chains and alternative proteins, transforming education, and help entire regions become circular.

If you are interested to learn more, the following experts are available to discuss:

• Andy Kerr, Chief Strategy Officer at EIT Climate-KIC
• Saskia Visser, Land use & agri-food lead and Deep Demonstration programme coordinator

You’ll also find additional information in the press kit.

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