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Project title

Emissions Inventory Research to improve flux estimates of GHGs and nutrients from agricultural and land

Primary Funding Agency

Environmental Protection Agency

Co-Funding Organisation(s)

n/a

Lead Organisation

University of Limerick (UL)

Lead Applicant

Colm Duffy

Project Abstract

The Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector contributes over 28% to global GHG emissions. The AFOLU sector includes agricultural activities related to livestock, crop production, land-use and land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) which is responsible for both emissions and removals. In Ireland, 63% of land cover is devoted to agriculture, 90% of that is utilised for livestock production, and emissions from the sector account for 34% of the national emissions profile. Yet, LULUCF has significant potential to be a major carbon dioxide (CO2) sink. Ireland’s forest cover is among the lowest in Europe at just 11% , which leaves considerable room for expansion. In addition, carbon sequestration under Irish grassland soils could offset up to 6.8 Mt CO2 eq yr-1, though research is needed to validate and represent this potential within national inventory report (NIR) accounting methodology that currently uses a Tier 1 approach for land use (apart from forestry). Further, 8 Mt CO2 eq is emitted annually due to the drainage of over 300,000 ha of organic soils for livestock production and the exploitation of cut-over peat bogs. As such, there is significant potential for GHG mitigation via organic soil rewetting, but the magnitude of this mitigation is subject to uncertain default emission factors for CO2, nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) before and after rewetting. This project will identify and integrate best practise GHG emission and removal accounting methodologies for AFOLU into national inventory accounting, at national and local scale using pilot catchments. Full use will be made of all relevant data from advanced observation systems and in-situ measurements to develop refined emissions factors and reduce uncertainty in the estimation of emissions and removals from the AFOLU sector. An important part of this integrative projective will be to work closely with European and national partners, including EPA Fellows working in parallel on land use gas fluxes and the NIR team as well as wider experts, to ensure that best practise methodologies are evaluated and, where possible, integrated into inventory accounting. This research will make a significant contribution to NIR development, but will also pioneer more detailed local inventory analysis within selected pilot catchments, building on recent EPA projects and utilising finer scale data on land management (also linked with water quality) available at catchment scale. Finally, Dr Colm Duffy brings to this Fellowship comprehensive knowledge of AFOLU accounting methodologies from previous projects, including work on livestock GHG and ammonia (life cycle assessment) models, forestry models, and the development of an AFOLU emission scenario model (“GOBLIN”) based on NIR methodology. A unique contribution to this Fellowship will be the use of GOBLIN to test potential methodologies in an inventory context, and to explore implications of any selected methodological improvements for Ireland’s AFOLU climate neutrality objectives. Leveraging past experience, existing modelling capability and access to an extensive network of experts, this Fellowship will advance best practise in AFOLU emissions accounting to deliver societal and academic impact.

Grant Approved

�274,159.15

Research Hub

Climate Change

Research Theme

n/a

Start Date

29/03/2022

Initial Projected Completion Date

28/03/2025