COP31 – Science into Action – Agriculture, Climate Adaptation and Mitigation

This is a placeholder for my activities planned at COP31, Antalya, Turkey in November 2026. I will use the QR code on my videos and cards. The UNFCCC COP31 United Nations Convention on Climate Change – Conference of Parties 31 will be an important forum to reach and inform a wide audience about our research and policy work outside of academia.

An associated 90second video will be produced and published by at Heslop-Harrison

Collaborations

The work represented covers a large number of people I have been lucky enough to work with. The video features six researchers working at the University of Leicester, of six nationalities: Yangmeng Zhang, Trude Schwarzacher, Hess Ekkeh, Gavers Oppong, Heiko Balzter, and myself (Pat Heslop-Harrison). Alogether the work represents more than 100 colleagues I have worked with over the years, both in Leicester and internationally. They are co-authors of the academic publications on this website.

The University of Leicester’s Institute for Environmental Futures

The Institute for Environmental Futures (IEF) undertakes transformative, transdisciplinary research addressing relationships between people, ecosystems and environmental change. Working with UK and international partners, we develop science and evidence‑based approaches that support resilient, sustainable futures.

Our COP31 showcase highlights our work on Agricultural Genomics, showing how genetics, genomics and biodiversity contribute to environmentally sustainable food production and climate resilience. Food production has improved global nutrition, yet at significant environmental cost. Our research develops improved materials and uses genomic analysis and biodiversity to support three complementary goals for agriculture: sustainability (reducing environmental impact), adaptation (developing climate‑resilient crops and animals), and mitigation (reducing greenhouse‑gas emissions).

We analyse crop diseases, study biodiversity preserved in herbarium and germplasm collections, and work with wild crop relatives to introduce beneficial traits into crops. We identify genetic improvements in grasses that enhance digestibility and reduce methane emissions from ruminants. Peatland and land‑management research is carried out in the IEF.

Our showreel focuses on genomics, genetics and their modelling to deliver improved crop and forage varieties ready for a changing climate, demonstrating partnerships from the UK in agricultural innovation and genomic science.

University: www.le.ac.uk

Institute for Environmental Futures: www.le.ac.uk/research/institutes/environmental-futures

Agricultural Genomics at COP31: www.molcyt.org/2026/08/13/cop31/

Science into Action for Net Zero: Agriculture, Adaptation and Mitigation

A short film by Pat Heslop-Harrison, University of Leicester, Institute for Environmental Futures

Why agriculture matters for net zero

Agricultural research does two jobs at once for the climate: it helps mitigate carbon emissions, and it helps farming systems adapt to a changing, more variable climate. Farming has succeeded in feeding a growing world, but that achievement has come at a huge cost to the planet — and current practices are not sustainable.

There is, however, a window of opportunity. Population growth outside Africa has largely levelled off, so the imperative is shifting from simply feeding more people to growing food sustainably.

Tapping the world’s biodiversity

we are profiling and turning to the world’s biodiversity — held in wild plant populations, herbarium collections, and germplasm (seed) banks — to breed more resilient, sustainable crops. We also study the full range of viruses and fungi affecting crops, and the soil microbiome.

One project is using wild relatives of wheat to transfer natural disease resistance into modern varieties, comparing wild, hybrid-introgression, and control wheat side by side in field trials, and confirming the genetic transfer at the chromosome level. New breeds and varieties developed this way are more sustainable to grow.

Cutting methane from livestock

Ruminant livestock are a significant source of methane, a potent driver of climate change. We are identifying genes that improve the digestibility of forage grasses, which in turn reduces methane emissions from cattle and other ruminants — tackling emissions at the source, in the field. There is a complex interaction between the genetics of the forage, the animals, and the microbiome, leading to methane emission, where farm animals account for several percent of global greenhouse gas GHG emissions.

Peatlands, data and policy

Peatlands store vast amounts of carbon, and, with Gavers Oppong and colleagues, we are combining on-the-ground environmental monitoring and data collection including genomic studies to inform policy design. New land and water management regimes, grounded in this data, are critical to reducing emissions from these landscapes.

Science, evidence and the next generation

Heiko Balzter gives with a reminder that the fight against climate change must be grounded in science: policy and action need to be based on solid scientific outcomes and insights.

My final sequence shows that, alongside the research, we are training the next generation — the future custodians of the planet.

By integrating genomics, biodiversity research and modelling, our work is delivering improved genetics, new crop varieties and livestock breeds that are ready to meet the challenges of a changing and unpredictable climate.

Supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals

This research directly supports:

• SDG 2 – Zero Hunger
• SDG 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production
• SDG 13 – Climate Action
• SDG 15 – Life on Land
• SDG 17 – Partnerships for the Goals

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Produced and presented by Professor Pat Heslop-Harrison, University of Leicester Institute for Environmental Futures, with contributions from YangMeng Zhang, Dr Trude Schwarzacher, Hess Ekkeh, Dr Gavers Oppong, and Professor Heiko Balzter.

Another video from the IEF on data-driven agriculture and AI for Net Zero – Digital twins for sustainable land management is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLQHMGxwHc0

Academic work supporting the video and the relevant publications in academic journal ‘papers’ will be below, – Here are a selection of research papers about the work.

The video is released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. “To the fullest extent permitted by law, I waive all copyright and related rights in this work. Anyone may copy, modify, distribute, reuse, remix, perform, publish or otherwise use this material for any purpose, including commercial purposes, without permission or attribution. Unless obvious to someone skilled in the area or credited otherwise, all images, video, graphics and narration are my own work and are included in this CC0 dedication https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/.” While authorship attribution is not legally required under CC0, good scholarly practice (as taught by me in the University) includes citing sources used in academic work.

This video and associated material was made in my professional academic capacity as a University of Leicester Professor. Under conventions of Academic Freedom, and in common with academic publications, it presents my own conclusions based on my analysis of scientific research. It is not a collective view from the organization.

No direct funding was received for this video. I was mostly created in my role as Professor in Agricultural Genomics in the University of Leicester, with a range of grant support for specific projects, including studentships, mostly from national governments/taxpayers and international organizations. Cameras, recording and editing equipment used, inclding computing hardware, was privately purchased by me.

VIDEO Production Details

Editing was carried out in Davinci Resolve Studio 21.0 with the Speed Editor console, running under Windows 11 on an MSI MicroStar International Vector GP68HX 13VF laptop computer with Intel i9 13950HX, 64Gb RAM and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU (8 GB).

Recent photography was carried out on a Xiaomi Leitzphone 17 phone, DJI Osmo and Nikon D300 with Shisuo radio- or Yeti Blue microphones.