IFA president condemns Greens’ ‘ill-timed’ climate change law

IFA president John Bryan criticised attempts by the Green Party to rush through climate change legislation which he described as “ill-timed and badly thought out”.

The IFA president said any new climate change legislation needs to take account of the carbon sinks associated with permanent pastures and forestry. He said Ireland has the largest carbon absorbing permanent pastures in Europe and the greatest potential to expand the forestry sector.

Mr Bryan said: “Hastily introduced climate change legislation will be very damaging to the role that the agri-food and other sectors can play in Ireland’s economic recovery. Before the Government moves ahead with any legislation... it must take full account of Ireland’s sustainable model of farming and change the flawed method of calculating greenhouse gas emissions, to accurately reflect carbon sinks from soils and forestry.”

Mr Bryan said the Government’s Food Harvest 2020 Report identifies major growth in exports and jobs from the dairy and livestock sectors.

He argued that introducing legislation with unrealistic reduction targets will have a negative impact on the sector’s potential: “It is ludicrous that Ireland could introduce emission reduction targets way in excess of those proposed by other countries, while... countries such as Brazil destroy Amazonian rainforests and allow their greenhouse gas emissions spiral out of control.”

The current proposals go far beyond demands from the EU Commission. Mr Byran said more beneficial would be a package of measures which includes a realistic REFIT tariff to support carbon neutral energy production from the micro and bio and micro energy sectors.