Climate change is an ever-present challenge. If we do not take urgent action, it will have far-reaching consequences for our future. As part of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Dr Ken Byrne’s work provided evidence for better understanding the subject leading to methods for compiling greenhouse gas inventories used in countries worldwide. His research focused on how land use impacts greenhouse gas emissions, a driving factor in climate change.

Research by Dr Byrne and his international collaborators also shaped knowledge of the carbon balance in the soil of Ireland’s peatland forests. Although these forests are generally considered to be carbon sinks, they found that soil carbon emissions from forested peat soils are three times higher than previously reported. This research means that our assessment of the net carbon sequestration capacity of peatland forests is lower than previously understood. This data informed Ireland’s national climate action policy, influencing national strategy on mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and peatland management. 

Forests impact climate change, usually by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This depends on the net balance between carbon input and loss.  This research led by Dr Ken Byrne into forest carbon sequestration (absorption) not only advances knowledge of the forest carbon cycle but also impacts climate change research and policy, both globally and nationally.

This research informs current and future land use policy and is necessary to charting a more climate neutral path. It is vital to the formulation of climate policy and emission reduction targets. It is also vital to a robust assessment of the role of forests in emissions mitigation, enabling the sector to maximise its contribution. 

As part of the first efforts to quantify carbon sequestration in Irish forests, Dr Byrne’s research informed the national assessment of carbon sequestration in peatland forests (Source 3). It also played a key role in advancing understanding of the carbon balance in Irish forests (Source 3, Source 4).

This research also had a global impact through Dr Byrne’s work with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to which he was nominated three times (Source 1). The IPCC is the United Nations body that assesses the science of climate change. Dr Byrne contributed to an important part of this assessment, the development of guidelines on compiling greenhouse gas inventories. When the IPCC received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, Dr Byrne was a member the IPCC team that received the award.