Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 8 June 2016
49. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the steps he will take to ensure that Ireland's grass-based agriculture, forestry and boglands are taken into account as methods of carbon sequestration in upcoming European Union discussions on 2030 emissions targets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14835/16]
View answerIreland has adopted a whole-of-Government approach to developing climate policy. The Government has engaged in intensive discussions with the European Commission for some time now to highlight the importance of ensuring a coherent approach to the twin challenges of food security and climate change.
As part of our ongoing engagement at EU level, my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Naughten, and I met recently with Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete, the European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, to discuss proposals on the EU’s effort-sharing decision and on land use, land-use change, and forestry, LULUCF.
The meeting provided me with an opportunity to restate the commitment of the Irish agriculture sector to improving efficiency and driving down emissions, and to re-emphasise the importance of reflecting the 2014 European Council conclusions in the proposed effort-sharing decision, particularly in terms of their recognition of the low mitigation potential of the sector and their reference to the inclusion of afforestation and LULUCF as part of future climate and energy policy.
Afforestation, the creation of new forests, is included as a specific mitigation measure in paragraph 2.14 of the Council conclusions. This is important for Ireland as afforestation is the main cost-effective land-based climate mitigation tool available to us. Climate change mitigation by forests, forest fuels and wood products is one of the principal drivers of the policy to expand forest cover out to mid-century.
Annual estimates of the current level of uptake of carbon dioxide by forests are provided by my Department to the Environmental Protection Agency. Projected levels of uptake in forests and storage in solid wood products out to 2020 have been provided to the European Commission under Decision 529/2013 on land use, land-use change and forestry.
We will continue to work closely with the Commission prior to the launch of proposals for an effort-sharing decision, which are expected later this summer. It should also be noted that Ireland is one of a small number of EU countries to have elected to report on cropland and grazing land management activities under the Kyoto Protocol. This would allow Ireland to take advantage of any sequestration benefits that may be allowed in the future from these activities.
I thank the Minister for his response. The EU's discussions on how we will meet our emissions targets for 2030 represent a big challenge for Irish agriculture. This represents a key issue for the Minister's Department in the coming years and for the Irish team negotiating with their European counterparts.
Outside New Zealand, Ireland has the largest proportion of emissions in the world coming from agriculture. One third of all Irish emissions are from agriculture, whereas the average figure across Europe is 10%. Any issues, therefore, concerning emissions targets for agriculture which are debated at European level are much more challenging for us than for anywhere else.
It is crucial for the Minister to note, and our negotiators must be strong on this point, that the production of agricultural produce in Ireland is much more energy and carbon efficient than elsewhere. On average, it is about one third less. A key point in these negotiations is to ensure that when it comes to setting technical targets for methane and ammonia, a false economy is not brought into play by setting high targets. That would mean that other countries would end up producing more agriculture which is less carbon efficient, while the pressure is on Ireland.
I ask the Minister to comment further on what he expects and how confident he is that agriculture will be protected in these negotiations.
I confess that I did not quite grasp the level of achievement by the Irish agriculture sector until I was appointed as Minister. It is not widely understood that we are the most carbon-efficient producer of milk, bar none. In addition, through the beef data and genomics programme we are targeting the beef sector to lighten its carbon footprint.
Deputy McConalogue said that agriculture accounts for 30% of our carbon emissions, while the figure is 10% across the rest of the EU. That is factually correct but in a sense he is comparing apples with oranges, as I am sure he will appreciate. This is the message we must sell to the European Commission. We never had the industrial revolution here, so we do not have a history of heavy industry. However, we do have the most carbon-efficient industrial sector inside the farm gate. We are involved in measuring the carbon footprint of every individual farmer in the country. We have to sell that message and get it across forcibly.
I salute what has been achieved to date by the farming community. We are not seeking special exemptions because most of the required efforts are cost-reduction measures. The key is the Council conclusions which said that there is a limit to what agriculture can achieve in terms of reducing the burden of its carbon footprint.
However, we also must have sustainable food production practices. Given the growing population, there will be 9 billion people to feed by 2050. Is it not far better to have food produced in an intensive way here, with a low carbon footprint, rather than having carbon leakage from across the seas with beef coming in from South America, for example? These are the salient matters we must convey in that debate.
