Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue and Minister of State at the DAFM, Martin Heydon, have initiated a €2 million strategic partnership to support national climate action in agriculture – the venture has been funded by the European Institute of Technology (EIT), the European Commission and EIT Climate-KIC.
EIT Climate-KIC will partner with public and private stakeholders in the Irish agri-food sector, led by the DAFM. Together they will share expertise on climate innovation to support the agri-food sector in adapting to climate change.
Minister McConalogue commented that, “I believe that this partnership has the potential to bring new, innovative thinking across the sector, whilst supporting our ambitions and setting the sector on an accelerated pathway of climate action. Reducing emissions by 22-30% by 2030 and achieving climate neutrality by 2050 will require new approaches by everyone in the industry.”
Minister Heydon added: “I particularly welcome the ambition of the partnership to build a portfolio of actions, including trialling new practices and technologies, developing, and incentivising new business models, and improving citizen engagement.”
The liaison will see EIT Climate-KIC work with stakeholders from public, private, non-governmental and higher-education sectors to develop coordinated solutions on climate action. The partnership will initially map the Irish agri-food system to position the existing public and private sector partners and their initiatives.
Following on from that, it is hoped that potential innovative actions across business, the public sector, and communities can be identified.