Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 November 2016
663. Deputy Josepha Madigan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the efforts currently under way to make Irish farming more environmentally sustainable in view of Ireland's difficulty in reaching the climate change targets of the Paris Agreement due to agricultural production of greenhouse gases. [37432/16]
View answerThe Paris Agreement, which recently entered into force, clearly recognises that efforts to limit global temperature increases must do so in a manner that does not threaten food production.
This reflects the need for a coherent approach to the twin challenges of climate change and food security that does not force us to reduce our sustainable production of food.
The extent of the challenge to reduce GHG emissions, in line with Ireland’s EU commitments, is clearly understood by Government, as reflected in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015.
The Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 provides a statutory basis for Government policy on climate change. As required by the Act, a National Mitigation Plan (NMP) is currently being prepared and I understand that this will be released shortly for a period of public consultation by my colleague, the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment. Agricultural sectoral mitigation measures have been prepared for input to the NMP.
A range of actions are currently being undertaken to make Irish farming more environmentally sustainable, including measures under the Rural Development Programme (RDP), which is worth almost €4 billion over 7 years. The Programme is strongly targeted towards environmental benefits, including knowledge transfer programmes, which will bring the latest innovative sustainability research and practices direct to farmers.
Other measures include GLAS, the Green, Low-Carbon, Agri-Environment Scheme which offers opportunities to support emission reductions and carbon sequestration through various actions such as hedgerow and tree planting, minimum tillage and encouraging the sustainable management of upland peatlands, while at the same time addressing other environmental threats such as biodiversity and water quality.
The Beef Data and Genomics Programme is directly targeted at the climate emissions of 30,000 beef farmers. Its objective is to lower the intensity of GHG emissions by improving the quality and efficiency of the national beef herd
Furthermore, the establishment and maintenance of landscape features (for example, Ecological Focus Areas under CAP Pillar I) can assist with achieving other environmental objectives which are expected of land, such as water and biodiversity management, in addition to carbon sequestration benefits.
Ireland is a world leader in areas such as sustainable auditing and carbon foot-printing under the Origin Green programme. Origin Green is a strategic priority in Food Wise 2025, the ten year strategy for the agri-food industry.
Also the Pasture Profit Index, the Carbon Navigator Tool and the Agricultural Catchments Programme help to reduce carbon emissions per unit of output produced and help protect our rivers.
All of these efforts are being implemented alongside an extensive afforestation scheme. Afforestation is the main cost effective land based climate mitigation tool available to Ireland, followed by the above mentioned mitigation technologies in agriculture itself. 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. Agriculture and afforestation are intrinsically linked in Ireland. Every new hectare of afforestation comes directly from agriculture.
