Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 7 December 2021
683. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the extent to which his Department has studied all the options in respect of carbon reduction without damaging the food production sector; if he has quantified the amount by which carbon levels can be reduced by the activation of a forestry programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60476/21]
View answerI and officials in my Department have been consistent in my position that agriculture must achieve its climate objectives while maintaining current food production output.
It is my belief that we are the sustainable food capital of the world and that we can continue to produce in sustainable manner while reducing our carbon footprint.
The recently published All-of-Government Climate Action Plan 2021 has set an ambitious target for the agricultural sector of achieving a 22-30% reduction in emissions. Along with detailed actions for the sector contained within the plan, my Department has also published the Ag-Climatise Roadmap which contains a number of achievable on-farm actions to further ensure the continued sustainability and economic viability of our food production sector.
Ireland’s forests are an important store of carbon, with estimated stocks at over 312 million tonnes. In our recent greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Ireland reported a removal by forests of circa five million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq) from the atmosphere in 2019, which includes the carbon stored in harvested wood products.
Land use affects how GHG’s in the atmosphere are either emitted, or removed, by our land. Afforestation is the single largest land-based climate change mitigation measure available to Ireland. Management of our existing forests also provides opportunities to increase carbon stores.
My Department will continue to promote afforestation and forest management measures to realise our 2030 ambition. The recently published climate action plan identifies measures for Forest Land to reduce emissions in Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) with potential direct savings of 2.9 MtCO2eq in 2030.
Ambitious afforestation targets are required to increase sequestration in forestry include a yearly planting rate of at least 8,000 ha per year and other measures to increase the storage of carbon in long lived harvested wood products.
