VIRTUAL EVENT: Climate neutral food and wood: Showcasing best climate practices in agriculture, forestry, food systems and the bioeconomy

The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Climate Action (DG CLIMA) and EASME are organising a series of webinars to showcase successful LIFE and Horizon 2020 projects in the areas of agriculture, food systems, forestry, and the bio-economy. These online events will feature project representatives, experts from the EU Institutions and agencies as well as other key stakeholders. They will discuss best practices, lessons learned, and future policy initiatives.

This event is connected to several EU initiatives under the European Green Deal: the upcoming review of legislation on land use, land use change and the forestry sector; the upcoming new strategy on climate change adaptation; the recently adopted Farm to Fork Strategy for a fair, healthy and environmentally friendly food system; and the implementation of the Bioeconomy Strategy.


6 October – AGRICULTURE
LIFE co-financing has been used to test and demonstrate a valuable collection of mitigation methods and techniques in agriculture and livestock farming: optimising grass management/feed ration, reducing fertilisation, precision farming techniques, manure management/biogas production, conservation agriculture and other soil protection methods, appropriate management of peatlands and grasslands increasing sequestration, etc. 

Project session: Climate change mitigation in agriculture. 

• LIFE CLIMATREE
  The project has developed a novel approach for accounting and monitoring carbon sequestration of tree crops and their potential as carbon sink areas. It has promoted environmentally and socioeconomically sustainable intensification, by narrowing the existing gap between potential and harvested yields in highly productive fields, while targeting non-responsive, poor or distant fields for extensification (e.g. green fallows, buffer zones
• LIFE AgriCOlture
  The project is seeking to foster the implementation of sustainable soil management techniques in agro-ecosystems and demonstrate their effectiveness in protecting soil organic matter in mountainous areas of the Emilian Apennines used for livestock farming, which are prone to soil degradation. This is expected to enhance carbon sequestration in the targeted area.
• BEEF CARBON
  LIFE Beef carbon is a demonstration project that aims to reduce the carbon footprint of beef production in the EU. It includes concrete actions in France, Ireland, Italy and Spain promoting innovative livestock farming systems and practices reducing GHG emissions and/or enhancing carbon sequestration while ensuring the technical, economic, environmental and social sustainability of beef farms. 

Project session: Climate-resilient agriculture. 

• LIFE AGRI ADAPT
  The project aimed to demonstrate sustainable best-practice adaptation measures with an ecosystembased approach at farm level in pilot farms located in Spain, France, Germany and Estonia, foster experience-sharing, raise awareness of climate change vulnerabilities and adaptation options, and further integrate adaptation into the EU policies (especially the CAP).
• LIFE ADAPT2CLIMA 
  The project has sought to facilitate the development of adaptation strategies for agriculture by deploying and demonstrating an innovative decision support tool. The tool makes it possible to simulate the impacts of climate change on crop production and assess the effectiveness of selected adaptation options in decreasing vulnerability to climate change of three Mediterranean islands, namely Crete (Greece), Sicily (Italy), and Cyprus.
• FARM LIFE
  The project aims to demonstrate innovative adaptation measures in land use, water management and soil conservation on three sites in the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant, contributing to improved climate resilience, socio-economic development and benefits for the environment and biodiversity. Emphasis will be given to the dissemination of technical and methodological results, to build resilient rural networks

7 October – FOOD
The LIFE programme supports several projects demonstrating innovative solutions and methodologies in the wider food chain value, related with the production (sustainable agriculture and livestock farming), the prevention of food-waste, the design of food re-distribution networks and sustainable circular economy solutions that improve the environmental performance of food systems overall.

Project session: Decreasing the environmental and climate footprint of the food value chain. 

• LIFE ICEGREEN
  The ICEGREEN project aims in demonstrating refrigerating technologies that replace Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) by alternatives that have near zero global warming potential. The demonstrated machinery can be used in ice cream shops, confectioners, coffee shops and street food providers, contributing to the shift towards a resource-efficient, low carbon and climate-resilient economy. 
• LIFE TTGG
  The LIFE TTGG project, which is currently being implemented in Italy, is focused on improving the supply chain efficiency of the Grana Padano cheese (Protected Designation of Origin) by designing and developing an Environmental Decision Support System (EDSS) to assess and reduce its PEF. The project is working on developing several tools (i.e. LCA, LCI) that will be used in several Italian, French and Spanish hard and semi-hard cheeses. 
• H2020 TRUE
  The project aims to identify the best routes, or “transition paths” to increase sustainable legume cultivation and consumption across Europe. The project foresees a decision support tool for primary producers, agronomists, processors, associated businesses and decision makers to help determine a range of options for successful transitions that include a variety of legume species and processing approaches to match the pedo-climatic zones and farm network types.

Project session: Fostering a circular food system. 

• LIFE REFRESHMENT
  The LIFE REFRESHMENT is demonstrating circular economy processes using outputs of the brewing process. The spent grain, which is approximately 85% of total generated brewing by-products is transformed in three by-products of important market value: a carbonated, organic fermented drink, a healthy cereal-based breakfast drink, containing fibre and probiotics and cereal bars. 
• LIFE for Acid Whey
  The project implements innovative circular economy techniques to extract high added-value proteins (including lactoferrin, lactoperoxidase and immunoglobulins) from waste whey streams of the dairy industry, in an economically viable way. 
• LIFE BIOCOPACPlus
  The project demonstrates a methodology to reduce CO2 emissions in food packaging by creating a new by-product from tomato waste.  Significant reductions in CO2 eq emissions were tracked during the project’s lifetime. 

A discussion about sustainable food systems with the following panelists:

• Giovanni Colombo, EIT Food
• Jeanette Coombs-Lanot, Danone
• Mr. Zitouni Ould-Dada (see picture), FAO
  Deputy Director, Climate and Environment Division

• Céline Ménétrier, La Ruche qui dit Oui

8 October – FORESTRY

The LIFE programme helps in preventing and tackling forest fires, forest monitoring & modelling and tools and services, adaptive forest management, protecting ecosystem services and information, governance and capacity building

Project session: The role of forests in the fight against climate change.

• LIFE CLIMARK
  The overall purpose of the LIFE CLIMARK project is to promote multifunctional forest management for climate change mitigation, through the design of a local market of climate credits. The project takes place in Catalonia (Spain) and it is replicated in Veneto (Italy). 
• LIFE FoResMit
  The LIFE FoResMit developed guidelines for good silvicultural practices for the restoration of peri-urban degraded coniferous forests in Italy and Greece with native broadleaved species. 
• LIFE PeatRestore
  The overall objective of the LIFE Peat Restore project is to reduce CO2 emissions by restoring degraded peatlands and providing guidelines for decision-makers and conservationists

Project session: Making forests resilient to the impacts of climate change. 

• LIFE FORECCAST
  The main objective of the LIFE FORECCAsT project is to provide forest owners managers of the Parc Naturel Régional du Haut Languedoc with the means to build their management strategy.
• INTERREG SUSTREE Project
  This Interreg project promotes the adaptation of forest ecosystems to climate change by enabling transnational management of forest genetic resources. The project developed transnational models for 
• LIFE MIXforCHANGE
  The main aim of the project is to contribute to the adaptation to climate change of European mixed sub-humid Mediterranean forests by increasing their resilience, ensuring their conservation and enhancing their productive, environmental and social functions.

A discussion about climate change mitigation and adaptation in forestry with the following panelists:

• Michele Bozzano, EFI
• Darius Sarshar, SLM Partners
• Jo Maes, Tree Charter Initiative
• Julia Grimault, I4CE

9 October – WOOD
The LIFE programme supports several projects demonstrating innovative solutions and methodologies in the wider wood value chain related with increasing the substitution effects in buildings as construction materials and in other circular economy applications. 

Project session: The mitigation potential of building with wood. 

• LIFE EcoTimberCell
  The project LIFE EcoTimberCell foresees to develop and promote new, negative CO2 footprint products made from wood to be used in the buildings construction sector. 
• LIFEWOOD
  The project has developed an environmentally friendly technology – wood acetylation – for the modification of fast-growing softwoods.
• H2020 Build-in-Wood
  The project develops materials and components as well as structural systems and façade elements for multistorey wood buildings fit for both new construction and retrofitting. 

Project session: Fostering a circular wood value chain. 

• LIFE Plastic Killer
  The project demonstrated the viability of an energy-efficient pilot plant that can finely separate post-consumer recycled wood from plastic impurities to enable its use, firstly, in manufacturing MDF panels and, secondly, as purified biomass. 
• H2020 SYLFEED
  The project aims to demonstrate a system that converts wood residues into a protein rich feed ingredient comprised of Single Cell Protein (SCP) to address the European protein gap.
• LIFE ECORKWASTE
  The project developed a plan for the sustainable management of the waste generated in the cork industry, which resulted in the minimisation of cork waste dumped in landfills.

Interaction
For questions and polls during the event, please access www.sli.do with the following event codes:
Day 1 – 6 October: #agriclima
Day 2 – 7 October: #foodclima
Day 3 – 8 October: #forestryclima
Day 4 – 9 October: #woodclima