Spanish agriculture, due to its climatic conditions and socio-economic characteristics, is one of the sectors most vulnerable to climate change.

Spanish agriculture, due to its climatic conditions and socio-economic characteristics, is one of the sectors most vulnerable to climate change.

Currently, agriculture is responsible for 11% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in our country. However, it is a sector with a high potential for mitigation, although this requires the training of agricultural managers (farmers, technicians from cooperatives, agricultural groups, SMEs and consultancies), who are ultimately responsible for implementing these measures or encouraging them among farmers.

The National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change indicates as a priority line of action the “development of guidelines and manuals for the management of agricultural systems, supported by the development of agroclimatic applications as a tool for decision-making”.

Therefore, the objective of this project focuses on training and advising agricultural managers to undertake agricultural practices that reduce energy consumption and GHG emissions, as well as making diagnostic tools available to them that will allow them to manage their farms in a more sustainable way in the future and improve their competitiveness.

“Energy, Climate Change and Agriculture” will train and advise these agricultural managers, who are ultimately responsible for implementing measures to reduce energy consumption on farms and fight against climate change from agriculture.

This group includes:

• Farmers: as entrepreneurs/self-employed workers who directly manage their farms and who, in many cases, do not have access to simple information or a clear vision of the benefits of fighting climate change.
• Technicians from cooperatives and agricultural groups with a great capacity to transmit information to farmers.
• SMEs in the agri-food sector: technicians with a very similar profile to the previous one and with great interests in reducing production costs to maintain not only the productivity and operation of the farms, but also the jobs created.
• SMEs in the consulting sector: perhaps the sector where more new lines of business can be opened. Agricultural consultancy on energy and GHG matters is very underdeveloped in Spain. The diagnostic tools and methodologies presented are free of charge and therefore offer the possibility of opening new lines of business that also have an impact on greater competitiveness in the consulting sector and, above all, provide a service that benefits the agricultural community in the short term.

The results that will be obtained with the project are:

• Training of 142 recipients, although the initiative will reach 1,691 workers.
• At least 14 agricultural managers (farmers, consultancy technicians, cooperatives and SMEs) will be advised on how to carry out an energy and GHG emissions audit.