Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 May 2017
543. Deputy Alan Kelly asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the specific actions he has undertaken under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 to contribute to the national mitigation plan. [25691/17]
View answerMy Department has been actively engaged in the development of the National Mitigation Plan (NMP) from the outset as part of the whole of Government approach lead by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment.
Officials from my Department have engaged with a number of cross-departmental committees and technical analysis groups established to progress the development of the Plan.
Prior to the passing of the Act my Department engaged in a public consultation process on the potential for greenhouse gas mitigation within the agriculture and forest sector. We also held a seminar to encourage further consultation and discussion of suggestions received as part of the public consultation phase.
The Teagasc Marginal Abatement Cost Curve (MACC) for Irish Agriculture (April 2012) quantified the opportunities for abatement of agricultural greenhouse gases, as well as the associated costs and benefits and was key in informing the suite of priority measures selected for implementation. An updated MACC is currently being finalised which will quantify the abatement potential of the agriculture, forest sector and land use sector for the period 2021-2030 and identify further measures for consideration.
As the Deputy will be aware my Department and its agencies have been strongly focused on improving the efficiency of Irish farming which is key to reducing emissions. We are focused on improving animal, grassland and nutrient management and have invested heavily in a number of schemes and measures such as the Origin Green initiative, the Beef Data and Genomics Programme and our Agri-Environment Scheme, GLAS. Our knowledge transfer programmes are key to bringing the latest innovative sustainability research and practices direct to farmers. These strategies have led to a significant disaggregation of production output and emissions, with current analysis suggesting that the emissions intensity per kcal of food output in 2013 is reduced approximately 14% relative to 2005.
The agriculture and forest sector mitigation measures have been submitted for inclusion in the NMP to my colleague Minster Naughten. I look forward to the publication of the final Plan in due course.
