Monitoring, reporting, verification and mitigation of non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions and related air pollutants from agriculture

Expected Outcome:

To help meeting the ambitions of EU climate and agriculture policies, including implementation of the Regulation on Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming^[1], the successful proposals will provide for activities that ultimately lead to a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (in particular gases other than CO₂) from the agricultural sector and to improved monitoring, reporting and verification of the emissions.

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV), in particular at farm level, of direct and indirect non-CO₂ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and related air pollutants is improved;
• improved MRV and insights from practical experience are comprehensively integrated in relevant models and used in agricultural policy development;
• knowledge on the responses of non-CO₂ GHG and air pollutant emissions to different agricultural practices and to climate change and its impacts is enhanced;
• new and better knowledge and approaches for mitigating non-CO₂ emissions are available, widely shared and applied in agricultural practice, in particular by farmers, advisors, and other stakeholders.

Scope:

In 2021, the EU agricultural sector accounted for approximately 11% of the total GHG emissions in the EU. The bulk of emissions can be attributed to methane and nitrous oxide, stemming from livestock and release from agricultural soils, in particular due to fertiliser application and manure management. Additional efforts are needed in the sector to help meet the EU’s climate targets, in particular climate neutrality by 2050. To promote the uptake of mitigation practices at farm level, better data on their impact and effectiveness are needed. There is also a need for new practical solutions to help farmers monitor and reduce non-CO₂ GHG emissions.

Proposals should:

• focusing on methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) and including indirect sources of N₂O (soil nitrification/denitrification, ammonia volatilisation, nitrogen leaching), address agricultural practices in manure management, livestock feeding and grazing, soil tillage, fertiliser use and liming in all relevant types of farming systems, including animal husbandry, with a view to developing harmonised metrics and effective mitigation measures;
• through analysis, field experiments, and demonstration activities, assess and improve the accuracy, effectiveness, efficiency and user-friendliness of MRV tools for the above GHGs, reducing uncertainties via established and novel methods and enabling use of higher tiers for reporting under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Regarding emissions related to fertilisation, this should include a life-cycle perspective addressing also direct and indirect emissions related to the production of different types of fertilisers, notably comparing organic to mineral/chemical fertilisers;
• improve understanding of linkages between direct non-CO₂ GHG emissions, notably of N₂O, and other pollutant emissions from agricultural practices (including ammonia), and assess and develop options for reducing trade-offs between mitigation measures for both types of emissions;
• consolidate and improve knowledge on mitigation measures for agricultural non-CO₂ GHG emissions, and assess the effects of elevated atmospheric CO₂ concentration and climate change impacts on those emissions and on options for their mitigation;
• through dedicated training and outreach activities, build capacity among farmers, farm advisors and other relevant actors for widespread utilisation of improved MRV tools and GHG mitigation measures.

Proposals should include a dedicated task and resources for cooperation with the other project(s) funded under this topic and with other relevant ongoing and forthcoming Horizon Europe project(s) in different Destinations of this Cluster (notably HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-FARM2FORK-07: “Improving grassland management in European livestock farming systems”) and under the EU Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe” (notably HORIZON-MISS-2024-SOIL-01-04: “Systems to quantify nitrogen fluxes and uncertainties in European landscapes”). Proposals should address various farming systems/approaches, one of which should be organic farming, and cover a range of different pedo-climatic zones.

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) may participate as member of the consortium selected for funding. The role of the JRC would be to model trade-offs between CO₂ and non-CO₂ emissions for different farming activities, using MRV tools to support the implementation and further development of the Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming (CRCF) certification framework.^[2]

Due to the scope of this topic, international cooperation is strongly encouraged, in particular with China under the EU-China Food, Agriculture and Biosolutions (FAB) flagship initiative.

[1] https://climate.ec.europa.eu/eu-action/carbon-removals-and-carbon-farming_en

[2] https://climate.ec.europa.eu/eu-action/carbon-removals-and-carbon-farming_en. The JRC provides support to the implementation of the framework, by providing regional baselines as well as analysis of linkages between CRCF and Common Agricultural Policy emission mitigation potential, and the uptake in the UNFCCC greenhouse gas emission inventories.