Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 September 2022
2095. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the estimated cost of completing an audit of each farm in the State that would identify the current carbon sequestration, storage and emissions on a farm-by-farm basis; the methodology that would be utilised to carry out this work; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42123/22]
View answerThe recent publication of the Commission's Communication on Sustainable Carbon Cycles has sent a clear signal to European Member States on the need to increase the ambition and participation of our land managers in the area or carbon removals and reductions and outlines that “every land manager should have access to verified emission and removal data by 2028 to enable a wide uptake of carbon farming”, as a long term objective.
The long term nature of this target is reflective of the complexity that is involved in calculating a trustworthy carbon balance at farm level due to the multitude of variables, both natural and man-made, that can affect carbon emissions/removals.
I recognise the importance of establishing a national baseline data for a range of activities at farm level and we are working to ensure we can have an accurate dataset in this space.
To this end and taking a proactive approach, I have provided core funding for a number of relevant initiatives such such as the National Agricultural Soil Carbon Observatory (NASCO) infrastructure, the Pilot Soil Sampling Programme and the Farm Environmental Study (FES), while also providing funding to European Innovation Projects such as the Farm Carbon EIP and FarmPEAT EIP which will provide specific information not only on the baseline data but also on how we can influence land use management change in these areas.
In addition, my Department continues to support Bord Bia’s Origin Green programme and their work with 1,000s of Irish farmers to embed sustainable environmental practices within their businesses.
These national research and demonstration activities will have key learnings for future policy in this area while also leading to a refinement of data to the National Inventory Reporting framework for greenhouse gas emissions.
In demonstration our recently launched country wide network of Teagasc supported Signpost Farms will showcase how best practice management techniques can be adopted on a wide range of enterprises and soil types.
These research and demonstration activities along with the recent establishment of the Carbon Farming Working Group, chaired through my department, will allow us to address a number of requirements around carbon farming mainly in the areas of establishing baseline data, auditing, governance and address the need for the Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) of carbon removals/reductions.
It is important that we align with EU direction and I look forward to the forthcoming proposals from the European Commission on a regulatory framework for Carbon Farming.
