Project Duration: 45 months (March 2018 – December 2021)
Total EU Budget: €4,453,431
Total Ireland (TUS) Budget: €340,250
Project Description
The EU INTERREG Carbon Connects is a North-West European project consisting of partners from Netherlands, France, Belgium, UK and Ireland. The project is aiming to reduce approximately 50% of the CO2 emissions caused by draining or burning agricultural peatlands. The goal of EU INTERREG Carbon Connects Project is enhancing the Carbon Sequestration of mismanaged and drained peatlands in North-West Europe by promoting sustainable bio-based business models by facilitating transformation in land use towards wet agriculture.
This project is also promoting “Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES)” provided by rewetted and vegetated carbon sequestrating peatlands. The major activities of this project are raising water levels of mismanaged and drained peatlands, introducing new wet agricultural crops (cattail, reed, peat moss) for sequestrating carbon and harvesting biomass e.g. cattail as a raw material for building and 4) involving a wide range of stakeholders such as local authorities, policy makers, research institutions, farmers, landowners etc.
More details about EU INTERREG Carbon Connects here and details about business models can be viewed here.
Project Objectives
Carbon Connects aims to reduce the high carbon footprint of peatlands soils in Northwest Europe by introducing new bio-based business models developed for sustainable land management practices. The business models enable the capturing of carbon in bio-based products that marketed to different sectors such as construction, biogas and bio-energy and heat energy for domestic purposes.
By implementing the business models, Carbon Connects will:
- Generate a Farmer-to-Farmer learning program to share best practices in each region by peers.
- Develop a set of policy papers to scale up the required agricultural policy shift in NWE and EU.
- Create an online collaborative living lab platform to have joint plan development and implementation of wet agriculture.
- Set up an online toolbox of state of the art land use practices and business models to share knowledge.
Contact Information
Seamus Hoyne
Development Unit Manager
Email: seamus.hoyne@tus.ie
Dr Amey Tilak
Project Officer
Email: amey.tilak@tus.ie
Martin Breen
Research Assistant
Email: Martin.breen@tus.ie
Project Website