Ireland is committed to concerted global action to address the climate crisis and engages in negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) through its membership of the European Union (EU).
The ‘Glasgow Climate Pact’ adopted at COP26, while reflecting a compromise of positions, strikes a balance between increasing climate ambition, delivering on calls for increased climate finance and adaptation supports, and concrete actions to take forward to increase climate ambition. The commitments reached in the Pact, together with greater sectoral ambition announced through statements and alliances established at COP26 will keep 1.5 degrees within reach.
International cooperation is essential to effective climate action. Ireland will continue to work alongside our EU colleagues and with all Parties to accelerate climate action and ambition to deliver on the goals of the Paris Agreement. In Ireland, we are already taking decisive action through the Food Vision 2030 and 2021 Climate Action Plan.
By aligning these initiatives alongside the Agricultural Innovation Mission (AIM) for Climate, the sector has a much greater opportunity of achieving our climate objectives. New greenhouse gas mitigation technologies will be key in the agriculture sector, and the AIM initiative supports this.
The principles outlined in the Policy Action Agenda for a Just Transition to Sustainable Food and Agriculture are consistent with Food Vision 2030, Ireland’s new strategy for the agri-food sector. My Department were not approached to endorse this Policy Action Agenda, unlike the AIM initiative.
