Simon Coveney commits to farm emission efficiency and cuts

The Government will not be given an easy ride over greenhouse emissions in agriculture, even if it is successful in pleading a special case for the sector, Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney has said.

Ireland is an outlier among EU countries in that agriculture comprises a much larger part of the economy than in other states. It has meant emissions from that sector comprise a much higher proportion of overall emissions.

Current official figures show that agriculture emissions make up 45 per cent of emissions. With the EU having already made a commitment to cut emissions by 40 per cent by 2030, the State faces a huge challenge in achieving those goals, especially in agriculture.

Mr Coveney and Minister of State with responsibility for forestry Tom Hayes gave a briefing on the department's current policies and strategies in relation to climate change in Dublin yesterday.

This is ahead of the UN global summit on climate change (COP 21) which will commence in Paris at the end of this month.

Increase in production

The figures for Irish agriculture emissions are generally good compared with the base level of 1990, having fallen despite a marked increase in production over that period.

However, with such an onerous target for 2030, the Government will have to argue for more understanding of what it calls Ireland’s “unique position”.

The Minister has argued that Irish agriculture, with 90 per cent based on grassland and pasture, was one of the most efficient in the world pro rata. He and his officials say simply dramatically reducing the herd to meet targets would make no sense.

With a growing world population, the demand for meat and dairy will increase. And the replacement produce will come from countries mainly in South America which are less efficient than Ireland.

He signalled yesterday that Ireland was not looking for a free pass but would use every available tool to reduce or offset emissions.He also said the Government’s case was helped by the fact the agriculture commissioner was Irish and the environment commissioner was a former Spanish minister for agriculture.

Research and science

The department’s own website says that new approaches based on research and science would mitigate emissions by a maximum of 4 per cent.

The Government has also put a lot of store in what it sees as the recognition of land-use, land-use change, and forestry as an offset. One particular aspect of this is forestry.

Mr Hayes said there have been 300,000 hectares in new forest planted since 1990 and the Government planned to add a further 43,000 hectares by 2020. This he said would remove 3.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Other innovations include the GLAS agri-environment schemewhich involves new hedgerows and cover for crops.

The genomics programme for the national beef herd would produce more sustainable and resilient suckler herds, reducing emissions by 235,000 annually by 2030.

All of these are relatively small measures but do have a cumulative effect. There is also innovative research in New Zealand involving additives to feed. If that proves successful, it could dramatically reduce the volume of methane emitted by livestock.

Mr Coveney said Irish dairy farming was the most efficient in Europe in terms of carbon efficiency and beef was placed number five.