Brendan Smith TD, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has indicated that Ireland fully supports the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases.
Ireland has consistently raised the urgent need to address the parallel challenges of increasing food output to meet the growing worldwide demand and at the same time dealing effectively with climate change both in terms of adaptation and mitigation. World food production must be increased by 70% by 2050 while at the same time there is a need to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Dealing with climate change in the agriculture sector and at the same time achieving food security, is the great twin-challenge facing the world.

The Minister said

“We also recognise the importance of research aimed at meeting these twin challenges. Ireland has a long track record of research to increase efficiency in the sector. In recent years we have refocused the programme on greenhouse gas mitigation. We are aware of the problem that has to be solved and of how difficult it is to achieve progress – our experts have indicated that the currently available technical mitigation options will mitigate emissions in Ireland by less than 4% compared to business as usual. Co-operation in focused research and sharing of information will be essential to achieve progress. This Global Research Alliance is an important initiative is important for agriculture and food security. We are committing our knowledge, research and expertise to the Alliance”.

Click here for press release from DAFF

Researchers from 17 European countries cooperating in the EU-Integrated Project CarboEurope, led by Detlef Schulze, of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany have compiled the first comprehensive greenhouse gas balance of Europe.

A strong carbon sink of -305 Million tonnes of carbon per year exists in European forests and grasslands which could offset 19% of the emission from fossil fuel burning. However this is partly cancelled out by agricultural land and drainage of peat-land  which emits CO_2. The resulting net CO₂ sink of the European continent is 274 Million tonnes of carbon per year – only 15% of the emissions from fossil fuel burning.

However all European ecosystems are managed and as a by-product of land management other powerful greenhouse gases are released – for example nitrous oxide from fertilizers applied to grassland and crops, and methane from ruminants and from peat-lands. These previously neglected emissions of greenhouse gases from land-use cancel out almost the entire carbon sink, leaving the landscape offsetting only some 2% of the CO₂ emissions from households, transport and industry. 

The situation is worse when focusing on the 25 EU states. Here, although forests and grasslands can compensate for 13% of the CO₂ emitted by fossil fuel burning, emission of powerful greenhouse gases from agricultural emissions and peat mining reduces the effectiveness of the land surface sink to 111 Million tonnes of carbon per year, which is only 11% of the CO₂ emitted by fossil fuels. However, since the emissions of methane and nitrous oxide are relatively higher in the European Union the land surface emerges as a greenhouse gas source of 34 Million tonnes of carbon per year. This effectively increases the emissions from fossil fuel burning by another 3%.

Click on this link for more details.

Peter spoke about LUCAS, the Land Use and Carbon Analysis System of New Zealand which is used to meet New Zealand’s reporting requirements under Kyoto. LUCAS uses LiDAR, a remote sensing technique, to inventory forests and to derive land-use change maps.

The presentation slides with voice over can be viewed below.

Allan will argue that while livestock may be part of the problem, they can also be an important part of the solution. He has demonstrated time and again in Africa, Australia and North and South America that, properly managed, they are essential to land restoration. With the right techniques, plant growth is lusher, the water table is higher, wildlife thrives, soil carbon increases and, surprisingly, perhaps four times as many cattle can be kept.

Admission €10, but €5 to members of the sponsoring organisations and the unwaged. Enquiries to climate@feasta.org or to (098) 25313 or (01) 661 9572

Click here to download the lecture flyer.

Iceland wants wetland restoration to be assessed for emission reduction units at the summit to work out a new deal on climate change in December in Copenhagen.
More carbon dioxide is released when wetlands are disturbed or destroyed than when forests are cut down. This is especially the case with peatlands, which contain dead organic matter (peat) with a carbon content of over 50 percent. These form under wet conditions where lack of oxygen hinders decomposition; wet conditions therefore limit the release of carbon dioxide.

There is a new focus on peatlands in climate change negotiations because of their high carbon content, which is released into the atmosphere when peatlands are damaged or drained. This is the rationale for including wetland and peatland restoration as a means of securing credits by Annex-1 countries in the new commitment period due from 2012 following the Kyoto Protocol.

A ‘global assessment on peatlands, diversity and climate change’ produced last year by the international non-governmental groups Wetlands International and the Global Environment Centre showed that carbon dioxide emissions from drained and damaged peatlands amount to more than 3,000 million tonnes annually, or over 11 percent of global fossil fuel emissions.

Rewetting peatlands can lead to an increase in methane emissions, but this is nearly always counterbalanced by a much larger decrease in carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide (N20) emissions. Besides carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane are the two other greenhouse gases known to cause global warming.

Link to full article

LUCAS – Land Use & Carbon Analysis System of New Zealand

Peter Stephens is an environmental scientist who has been with the New Zealand Ministry for the Environment for the past 5 years.  Prior to joining the Ministry, Peter was working for Landcare Research, a Crown-Owned Environmental Research agency.  In this agency Peter was involved in public-good remote sensing and soil research programmes. Peter joined the Ministry for the Environment to establish a system whereby New Zealand could report and account under Article 3.3 of the Kyoto Protocol.   This system is called LUCAS – Land Use & Carbon Analysis System. Peter is also a United Nations expert reviewer for Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) activities which are reported in national greenhouse gas inventories.

Peter will describe LUCAS and examine the issues New Zealand faced in developing LUCAS, and how these were overcome.

Time: Monday September 14th 2009, 6pm
Location: Central Hotel, 2 Exchequer Street, Dublin.

Please respond to me by emailing corinnabyrneATgmail.com by Wednesday September 9th if you are planning to attend.

Corinna Byrne , co-ordinator of the Carbon Cycles and Sinks Network, examined the policies needed to get Irish land to absorb CO2 rather than release it. Besides discussing how the large amounts of carbon locked up in peatlands can be safeguarded, she reviewed the role that biochar could play in reducing nitrous oxide and methane emissions and building up the fertility and carbon content of the soil.

Corinna Byrne – Carbon Cycles and Sinks from Feasta on Vimeo.

Recorded on day three of The New Emergency Conference: Managing Risk and Building Resilience in a Resource Constrained World. Held on 10-12 June 2009, All Hallows College, Drumcondra, Dublin 9, Ireland

Protecting forests offers a quick and cost-effective way of reducing emissions, but agreeing a means to do so won’t be easy.

Click here for a good general commentary on the climate negotiations from a forest perspective.  REDD Plus that would deal with deforestation and degradation as well as efforts to protect and enhance existing forest carbon stocks is also detailed.

New Scientist-17 August 2009 by Nora Schultz.

Rising CO2 levels may result in trading quantity for quality in terms of our food.

The discovery that staple crops like wheat have less protein when grown in high concentrations of CO₂ has already caused concern, but the bad news doesn’t stop there. Ramping up CO₂ also changes the balance of amino acids and several trace elements. The changes  found in the wheat grains, include an 8 per cent drop in iron and a 14 per cent increase in lead.

“The effect of rising CO₂ on our food quality is [one of] stealth – it’s there, but our scientific radars are not tuned to it “- Iraki Loladze of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Click here to read the full article.