How AI can play a role in helping to solve our climate problems

During Wales Climate Week, experts from the agriculture and land management sector gathered to discuss how we can diversify the way we manage our land - with a strong focus on seizing the opportunity to balance food production with protecting biodiversity, reducing emissions and improving our land's resilience to the impacts of climate change.

From AI and drones to innovations in animal feed and advancements in measuring soil quality, it was agreed that technology will play a crucial role in reducing our carbon emissions across the agricultural sector.

During her discussion with Steffan Powell in the 'Talks for Tomorrow' podcast, Dr Rebecca Heaton, emphasised the important role that managing our land has on many climate issues. She was very pragmatic about the ways in which Wales could move forward but had one very clear plea – involve everyone in the conversation. 

Discussions in this sector centred on four key themes:

• The role of technology and AI

• Collaboration

• Communication

• Scaling the solutions

The role of technology and AI

Dr Rebecca Heaton emphasised the important role that technology will have in building long-term resilience to climate change and sustainability.

Although farmers and land managers are constantly evolving their land management practices, there is still some hesitancy around the use of technology, especially when it comes to climate adaptation. However, as Dr Heaton put it, Wales has many great universities, delivering a lot of innovation that will help drive solutions in this space, especially around soil management, livestock management and nutrient and fertiliser distribution and management.  These technologies can help with precision application as well as measuring impact.

The key will be ensuring that farmers and land managers do not feel overwhelmed by all the new technology and that the choices, benefits and how to use the technologies are clearly communicated.

Working together is the key

Speakers and panellists discussed the complexity of reducing carbon emissions from our land management practices. Emphasis was on every land manager, landowner and farmer having different objectives for their land, so it will be important to ensure any changes suggested to farming practices will support these, while also reducing carbon emissions.

Experts also agreed that action will only be achieved if everyone works together to find pragmatic solutions that can benefit everyone, and as many people as possible are involved in the conversation. Collaborative and collective decisions will be key to bringing everyone on the journey together.

Let’s get everyone talking

Building on the topic of collaboration, industry experts raised the point that we need to maximise organisations like the Friendly Farmers Network to ensure that the benefits are being clearly communicated. There is a strong emphasis on ensuring that farmers fully understand the financial and practical opportunities linked to diversifying their farming practices. Not only this, but experts agreed that farmers and landowners need to be brought into the discussions as well, to agree on the approach before changes are rolled out.

As Dr Rebecca Heaton put it: “It’s about ensuring the landowner has a voice and has been consulted about the changes to their land.”

Scaling the solutions

The Sustainable Farming Scheme has recently been adapted to create a basic blanket rule for managing land, emphasising the impact on nature, grassland and water. There are then options, if it suits, to go over and above the thresholds which bring additional financial benefits. By having these options in place, farmers can scale their practices to suit the needs of their land, allowing a more pragmatic approach to change.

Dr Heaton stated “It’s not a whole scale change, but more of an evolution. Taking some of those easy steps first of all, such as changing your animal feed etc makes it less daunting.”

What happens next?

Insights and evidence from these discussions will inform the Carbon Budget 3 plan (2026-2030). A summary of outcomes from the Wales Climate Week discussions will be published alongside the new plan at the end of next year.

If you’d like to catch up on sessions from Wales Climate Week 2025, you can do so here.