Challenges

The HOLOS-IE project addresses multifaceted challenges related to GHG emissions, carbon sequestration, and environmental pollution in Irish agriculture. These challenges involve data integration, modeling complexity, societal acceptance, and the long-term commitment necessary to achieve ambitious carbon footprint reduction goals at the farm level and beyond. The goal of the HOLOS-IE digital platform is to assist farms in achieving carbon neutrality while promoting sustainable production. The challenges for example include:

• Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets: Meeting the EU's ambitious GHG emission reduction targets of 80-95% by 2050 compared to 1990 is a daunting task. Irish agriculture, responsible for a substantial share of emissions, particularly methane, presents a pressing challenge.
• Data Complexity and Integration: Data collection, and complex data integration, including emissions factors, algorithms, and databases specific to Ireland and the EU are highly challenging due to limited data sharing constraints. Making data available, coordinating, and managing this extensive data is a formidable task.
• Limited GHG Knowledge: Despite recent advances in understanding carbon sequestration and removals in Irish agriculture, there's still a lack of information regarding major GHG emissions, mitigation strategies, and future land use policies for adaptation, especially in the context of climate change and extreme weather events.
• Societal Acceptance: Implementing measures to reduce GHG emissions should not only be environmentally effective but also economically viable and socially acceptable. This poses a challenge, as societal buy-in is essential.
• Transdisciplinary Approach: Collaboration across various disciplines and sectors, from agriculture to climate science and policymaking, is limited by several policies across organizations. Effective communication and coordination among experts from diverse backgrounds are crucial.
• Precise GHG Assessment: Accurately assessing GHG/carbon budgets at the landscape/farm level, where emissions are highly variable and influenced by factors like land use and management practices, is complex. This requires sophisticated evidenced-based data collection and modelling.
• Policy Alignment: Ensuring that the project's findings align with national and international legal obligations and climate action plans is a crucial yet challenging task.
• Long-Term Commitment: Achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 demands a sustained, long-term commitment to the project's goals, considering evolving climate conditions.
• Modeling Complexity: Existing GHG models have limitations, particularly agricultural systems/landscape ones, and developing the HOLOS-IE model tailored to the Irish context involves complex programming, module development, and algorithm integration.
• Digital Platform Development: Developing a digital platform that addresses agricultural systems at various scales, from land parcels to entire landscapes, and facilitates national environmental reporting is a demanding task. It involves extensive coding and digital development.