The Programme for Government commits to an annual average 7% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to 2030 representing a 51% reduction over the decade. To meet these ambitions, we must reduce the level of carbon emissions across all sectors of our economy, including in the agri-food sector.
Irish agriculture has a positive international reputation in terms of producing high quality, sustainable produce. In order to maintain that reputation, we must reverse the trend of increasing emissions from the sector. We also know from the EPA’s State of the Environment report that much still needs to be done to protect our water, air and biodiversity. Government is committed to finding the balance between environmental, climate and biodiversity needs, and supports for the farming and agri-food industries.
My Department are currently preparing the Climate Action Plan 2021, which will identify the measures necessary to meet the Programme for Government ambition for carbon emissions, in direct consultation with stakeholders, including the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. In the agriculture sector, we must focus on a number of key areas.
Firstly, we must support and help our farmers to continue to roll out improvements in our farming practices. This is appropriate from both a consumer point of view, and from a financial perspective, as higher efficiencies often mean less costs.
Secondly, we need to create a policy framework to enable farmers to make choices to avail of new diversification business opportunities, in areas like forestry, the bioeconomy and organic farming.
And thirdly, we need to focus on gathering an evidence base to support policy design in the area of land use. Ireland is currently a net emitter of emissions from our lands. We need to reverse that trend and reward farmers for doing so. As well as developing the next Climate Action Plan, my Department together with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine are evaluating the potential climate contributions from land use improvements, to develop a land-use strategy. Land-use offers significant potential to sequester additional carbon and may provide a new source of family farm income and rural economic benefit.
The Programme for Government also provides that a reliable supply of safe, secure and clean energy is essential in order to deliver a phase-out of fossil fuels. The Government is committed to the rapid decarbonisation of the energy sector and will take the necessary action to deliver at least 70% renewable electricity by 2030.
The Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland (SEAI) published their Energy in Ireland report in December 2020, which is available at www.seai.ie. The report shows the breakdown of electricity generated by fuel type and gives the shares of both fossil fuel and renewable energy components of electricity generated. The share of electricity generated by renewables was 37.6% in 2019, up from 33.0% in 2018. Wind was the largest share of renewable electricity at 32% with hydro at 2.8% and other renewables including biomass at 2.7%.SEAI provisional figures for 2020 show 38.9% of electricity in Ireland was generated from renewable sources.
With the correct policy choices in the agri-food sector, we can reward farmers for sequestering carbon, restoring biodiversity, producing clean energy and improving water and air quality, while remaining profitable and competitive. This will offer opportunities to innovative enterprises which are sustainable in the long-term for Ireland and it’s workers.
