Ireland’s climate battle is being fought in its fields

On a windswept Irish farm, high-tech cow collars track animal health and solar panels glint on the milking parlour’s roof, as a country famed for its lush green pastures tries to reduce its agricultural carbon footprint. The Farm Zero C project near Bandon, County Cork, also manages grazing carefully, uses hedgerow and scrub habitats to shelter pollinators and birds, and plants legume crops to cut chemical fertiliser use, all producing measurable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Around 40 percent of Ireland's total greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, far higher than the European Union average.

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The unique Bandon initiative in the country's south could provide a model for tackling Ireland's biggest environmental dilemma: how to cut emissions on farms without drastically shrinking herds or decimating rural communities. Ireland's pastures, long symbols of national identity and prosperity, have become flashpoints in the debate over how a small island can meet big climate promises. Dominated by methane-heavy dairy and beef production from a seven-million-strong cattle herd, the sector produces more emissions than transport and energy combined.

“We are trying to create an economically viable climate-neutral system,” said Padraig Walsh, project manager at Farm Zero C, where 250 cows are milked. The project is a collaboration between Carbery, a dairy cooperative of more than 1,100 farmers, and “bioeconomy” researchers BiOrbic.