Cost of reducing emissions from agriculture 'huge'

SUBSTANTIAL REDUCTIONS in greenhouse emissions cannot be achieved in the agricultural sector without incurring huge costs, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has warned.

Addressing an Oireachtas committee yesterday, the agency said Ireland was unique of all EU countries, because of the relative size of its agricultural sector, and this posed a particular problem in meeting emissions targets.

The agency presented its latest projections to the Committee on Climate Change on both the 2013 Kyoto target for emissions reductions, and also the more stringent target that has been set for 2020 by the European Union.

Senior officials from the EPA said Ireland would meet its Kyoto targets without having to purchase any additional carbon credits. However, the committee, chaired yesterday by Fianna Fáil TD Michael Fitzpatrick, was also told that the 2020 targets imposed by the EU will pose greater challenges. The requirement is for a 20 per cent reduction in emissions compared to 2005 levels and would be more difficult to achieve if carbon sinks (which would result from increased afforestation) were not allowed.

Fine Gael’s agriculture spokesman Andrew Doyle, who has examined the issue for the committee, responded: “Without sinks we are snookered basically.”

The agricultural sector will form the biggest part of the emissions that will be taken into account for the 2020 targets, comprising some 39 per cent. Transport is the next biggest sector, amounting to 36 per cent, with residential emissions accounting for 14 per cent.

Dr Ken Macken, a programme manager for the EPA, said that achieving a bigger decrease than the projected 5 per cent for agriculture would be problematic because of the sheer size of our agricultural sector. “The next biggest country has 20 per cent emissions from agriculture. We are an outlier in that regard,” he said.

Earlier, his colleague Dr Eimear Cotter told the committee that the EPA’s latest assessment was that Ireland would meet its Kyoto targets without having to buy any more carbon credits.

The recession has resulted in very substantial emissions reduction.