Climate

Impacts of climate change such as increased surface temperatures, changing precipitation patterns and prolonged draughts are becoming increasingly evident. People working on and with the land are most directly affected. To limit and manage those negative impacts, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions must be reduced through mitigation measures and resilience must be built through adaptation measures. Agriculture accounts for 11% of direct GHG emissions in the EU, with much higher shares in some countries and in overall emissions of two particularly powerful GHGs: methane (mainly from livestock farming and rice cultivation) and nitrous oxide (mainly from soil management and fertilisers). While agricultural GHG emission levels in the EU have fallen since 1990, the decrease has become slower over time. R&I is needed to achieve necessary further reductions, through technological innovation and changes in agricultural practices, and to inform policy-making. While some changes in land use, such as conversion of grassland into arable fields, result in additional emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), other land-use practices also provide opportunities to remove CO2 from the atmosphere by storing carbon in soil and in biomass. Next to emission reductions, such land-based carbon removals play an important role in achieving the EU's 2050 climate neutrality objective. R&I is identifying and further developing different options for carbon-removing practices as well as addressing social and technological challenges involved in their widespread application. Triggered by the continued accumulation of GHG emissions in the atmosphere, changes in temperature, precipitation, and extreme weather events are already affecting crop yields, livestock production, and food security also in Europe. R&I is helping agriculture adapt to climate change, e.g. through the development of decision support tools and customised technologies or the breeding of novel crop varieties.