Improve the capacity to monitor and reduce air pollution from agriculture

This destination will support the EU Commission priorities ‘Sustaining our quality of life: food security, water and nature’ and ‘A new plan for Europe’s sustainable prosperity and competitiveness’.

The implementation of the European Green Deal will continue to guide R&I in this destination. R&I actions under this destination will take forward the zero-pollution ambition, contributing to reach the 2030 targets for pollution reduction in air, water and soil, as stipulated in the zero-pollution action plan. The activities will help establishing a clean industry, contributing to the EU Clean Industrial Deal^[1], and will aim to address, among others, pollutants of concern, including of emerging concern, also in view of the environmental objectives of the European Chemicals Industry Action Plan^[2]. Destination ‘Clean environment and zero pollution’ will help substituting hazardous chemicals and bringing innovation on safe and sustainable by design chemicals to ensure protection of human health and the environment. It will also continue the work on PFAS, the “forever chemicals”, started in the same destination in WP2025. It will also support the implementation of the revised Ambient Air Quality Directive^[3] and the Industrial and Livestock Rearing Emissions Directive^[4].

This destination will support the zero-pollution ambition in the industrial bio-based and bioeconomy sectors. The principles of the new EU bioeconomy strategy, underpinned by the principles of the circular economy, will allow for the replication value chains with improved resource efficiency and environmental performances, also enabled by innovative approaches designed in the Strategy for European Life Sciences, the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy and the upcoming Biotech Act.

Furthermore, R&I activities under this destination will underpin EU water legislation and the European Water Resilience Strategy^[5] by addressing water quantity and quality issues in specific sectors as well as across broader water systems, supporting EU policies and international conventions. The destination will also support the Marine Strategy Framework Directive^[6], particularly in its efforts to assess and mitigate the impacts of human activities on marine ecosystems such as contamination and underwater noise.

R&I actions under this destination will aim to underpin the conclusions from the Strategic Dialogue on EU Agriculture and the Vision for EU Agriculture and Food^[7], and support the next reform of the CAP with scientific evidence.

R&I actions under this Destination will encourage international cooperation, in line with the global approach on R&I. The Destination supports unlocking the unique assets for research and innovation of the EU outermost regions, in line with the EU strategy for outermost regions^[8].

Expected impact: Proposals for topics under this destination should set out a credible pathway to "achieve a clean environment, ensure water resilience, and enable the transformative change necessary to reduce air, water and soil pollution to levels no longer considered harmful to health and natural ecosystems, while respecting planetary boundaries". More specifically, they should contribute to one or several of the following expected impacts:

• Advancing scientific understanding and innovative solutions for identifying, preventing and mitigating pollution aim to effectively protect human health and safeguard the environment, preserving cleaner water and seas, healthier air and soil, and resilient forests.
• Innovative circular bio-based systems and biotechnologies are developed and made available to all stakeholders to progress towards the clean environment and zero-pollution ambition.
• Farmers and other actors in the food chain are empowered to make informed decisions and to apply novel strategies to prevent, reduce and remediate pollution from agriculture and the food system, contributing to the zero-pollution ambition.
• Effective solutions to remediate and decontaminate aquatic pollution are developed, made available and implemented contributing to reducing pollution to levels no longer considered harmful to the environment.

[1] Clean Industrial Deal - European Commission

[2] European Chemicals Industry Action Plan – European Commission

[3] Directive - 2008/50 - EN - EUR-Lex

[4] Industrial and Livestock Rearing Emissions Directive (IED 2.0) - European Commission

[5] Water resilience strategy - European Commission

[6] EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive - European Commission

[7] Vision for Agriculture and Food - European Commission

[8] COM(2022) Putting people first, securing sustainable and inclusive growth, unlocking the potential of the EU’s outermost regions.

Expected Outcome:

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

• monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of air pollutants at farm level is improved;
• human health and environment (including biodiversity) benefit from reduced impacts of air pollution from agriculture;
• EU policies preventing and reducing air pollution are supported with more comprehensive, harmonised and accurate scientific evidence, tools and methods to estimate the emissions;
• farmers, advisors and other stakeholders acquire new and better knowledge, technologies and practices to reduce certain air pollutants from agriculture.

Scope:

EU agriculture contributes substantially to air pollution through various emissions. Additional efforts are needed in the sector to help reducing the impact on human health and the environment, including biodiversity. To promote the uptake of measures 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 air pollution.

Proposals should:

• assess and improve the accuracy, cost, efficiency and user-friendliness of MRV methodologies and tools (including AI, IoT, etc.) for air pollutants (other than greenhouse gases) in agriculture at farm level through analysis, field experiments, and demonstration activities, reducing uncertainties and enabling use of higher tiers for the estimation of emissions and for reporting;
• consolidate, extend and improve knowledge on emission factors and mitigation potential of practices and activities at farm level, contributing to the further development of the EMEP/EEA air pollutant emission inventory guidebook 2023^[1];
• develop farming practices and technologies in manure management and application, livestock feeding and grazing, use of fertilisers and pesticides in all relevant types of farming systems, including cattle, poultry and pigs, to reduce air pollutants other than GHG and evaluate their reduction potential in line with relevant UNECE Guidance documents^[2];
• through dedicated training and outreach activities, build capacity among farmers, advisors and other relevant actors for widespread utilisation of improved MRV tools and air pollution reduction measures addressing, among other impacts, biodiversity loss.

Proposals must implement the multi-actor approach, with a consortium based on a balanced mix of actors with complementary knowledge, including farmers, researchers, advisors and businesses.

Concrete efforts should be made to ensure that the data and methodologies produced in the context of the funded projects follow the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable).

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), including topic HORIZON-CL6-2025-02-CLIMATE-04: Monitoring, reporting, verification and mitigation of non-CO₂ greenhouse gas emissions and related air pollutants from agriculture, especially to understand the combined effects of air pollutants.

The projects under this topic are relevant to the EU policies related to the Zero Pollution Action Plan, the Industrial and Livestock Rearing Emissions Directive, the National Emissions Reduction Commitments Directive, the Ambient Air Quality Directive, the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030, and the transition to a more sustainable EU agriculture in alignment with the EU Vision for Agriculture and Food and the Common Agricultural Policy.

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[1] EMEP/EEA air pollutant emission inventory guidebook 2023 | European Environment Agency's home page

[2] https://unece.org/DAM/env/documents/2012/EB/ECE_EB.AIR_120_ENG.pdf, https://unece.org/sites/default/files/2021-08/ECE_EB.AIR_149-2104922E.pdf, https://unece.org/DAM/env/documents/2015/AIR/EB/ECE_EB.AIR_129_ENG.pdf