Ireland toe to toe with France in the race to 2050

By Peter Higgins, B&T Drystock Adviser, Teagasc Galway/Clare

The recent National Beef Conference held in Ballinasloe showcased some of the most ground breaking research findings of 2023 including the updates to the Irish suckler beef breeding indexes, low-input, high-output grass-based dairy-beef heifer systems, as well as an overview of Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis (IBR), as well as its impacts and control measures that should be implemented on farms going forward. Also covered was an overview of the methods and technologies adopted on the Teagasc Signpost Farms to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Before wrapping up the night Rupert Claxton gave a thorough review of where Irish beef is and will stand in the global beef markets going into the near future.

Perhaps one of the most highly anticipated presentations of the evening was by former Teagasc researcher Anaïs L'Hôte, a well-respected colleague now based in the French Livestock Institute, Paris. Anaïs previously earned her credentials examining the growth rate of lambs on different  forage types in the Athenry Animal & Grassland Research Centre so she in well versed with the Irish agricultural landscape. Her presentation was focused on the first scheme to pay farmers for carbon footprint reductions in France.

Under the EU Green Deal both Ireland & France have set an overall target to be carbon neutral by 2050. The aim being to decouple economic growth from resource use, ensuring that there would be no net emissions of GHG’s on the continent. To achieve this Ireland will have to reduce its GHG’s by 51% as per the Climate Action Plan 2021 (CAP21), France will have a tougher mountain to climb, requiring a fourfold fall in its emissions in order to hit the same gong of achievement.

As the second most populous country in the EU at 66 million, France still achieves among the lowest emission intensities of all countries in the EU. To be able to compare Ireland with France we must find a common measure, this is a comparison of emission intensity per unit of GDP. According to a 2020 comparison by the UN, Ireland produces .07kg of CO2 for every US dollar of GDP, while France produces .09kg. Both nations are amongst the lowest of all analysed.

UNECE.org

It is no secret that France is faster than Ireland at implementing new policy, what aids them in doing so in this sector was the formation of Label Bas Carbone in 2018 by the ministry of Ecological Transition. This laid out a strategic framework to be able to certify low-carbon projects in France that were across all sectors, but also has a marketable aspect that could attract funding from private companies. These companies either require a route to offset their emissions or give voluntary contributions to aid in climate change mitigation and this scheme is a new service delivery method to do so. Similar to the An Bord Bia stamp on produce, certified projects are signed off with a Label Bas Carbone. This means that experts have analysed suggested schemes before validating them. A procedure is then followed up throughout the lifetime of the scheme to examine its success in the form of emissions reductions by independent auditors. So far there have been 13 schemes certified across forestry, building, transport, marine and six in the agricultural sector.

The Carbon Agri Method is used by French beef, dairy and tillage farms. Overall farms are analysed to assess their overall tons of CO2 –eq avoided through Life Cycle Analysis. The process begins on farm with an advisor using a spec validated by the ministry to designate the farm with a baseline. From there a carbon mitigation plan is drawn up between the advisor and farmer by choosing the most appropriate actions suitable options from pre-approved options. Similarities can be seen to the Irish scheme ACRES, except ACRES is funded by the CAP budget. A wider approach is taken to the overall technical workings of the farm under the Carbon Agri Project to take into consideration all inputs from fuel, fertiliser, crop & herd management, feed and manure control, all in order to reduce GHG’s while increasing the ability to sequester carbon. Similar to ACRES, the projects length is 5 years, with advisor supervision on farm at milestones again similar to the scorecarding in the 8 ACRES CO-OP zones. At the end of the project a final carbon audit is carried out to determine how much carbon was avoided. Other indicators monitored which are required to achieve certification by Label Bas Carbone are biodiversity, ammonia emissions, water quality, renewable energy production, soya consumption, irrigation etc.

The majority of these programs have French beef farmers who have gotten involved via breeders associations, cooperatives and advisory companies. For an idea of the potential results a French beef farm with a 95 suckler cow farm consisting of 185ha. Including 20ha. of cash crops and 32ha. of permanent grassland was used as a case study at the National Beef Conference. After implementing a mitigation plan hand in hand with their advisor this farmer achieved an emissions reduction from 14.1kg to 12.1kg CO2 –eq,/kg ‘live meat’ and from 1242 to 564kg CO2 –eq/ha of cash crops. There was also a reduction of nitrogen used across the farm while the whole project avoided 608t of CO2 via both sequestration and emissions reductions. The farmer was paid in the region of €15,000 for their participation but the scale of the farm in comparison to the average Irish farm must be taken into consideration.

Implementation of similar schemes in Ireland are on hold until more research is concluded that will give us more confidence in where our baseline soil carbon stocks currently reside and the role of certain soil types more common to Ireland as well as on farm hedging and the effect of different management practises. This in turn makes it difficult to measure the overall rate of carbon capture and storage. Ireland along with France, Belgium, Germany, Spain and Italy are coordinating in a LIFE carbon farming project which began in 2021 and will conclude in 2027. The aim is to create an EU framework which can be implemented in any EU state to reward farmers for the tons of CO2 avoided while consistently feeding back field data to the European Commission with the overall goal of becoming the first carbon neutral continent by 2050.