Industry to share farm’s GHG pressure
“It is true that other sectors will have to do more than 20%, because I believe agriculture does not have the capacity to achieve those numbers,” Mr Coveney told the Dáil last week.
He said Ireland highlighted the importance of a coherent EU approach to greatly increased global demand for food, and an important step towards this was taken at the October 2014 European Council.
Questioned by Sinn Féin’s Martin Ferris, he said Ireland faces a significant emissions compliance challenge from 2017 to 2020, which must be addressed in the national mitigation plan, currently being prepared.
“If Ireland is producing milk at the lowest carbon footprint in the world relative to other countries, does it make sense, in terms of a global climate change challenge, for the country that is doing the best job in producing milk at a low emissions intensity to reduce its herd size and produce less to allow other countries, that are producing at a higher emissions intensity, to produce more?
"The markets are going to demand more anyway.The point we have been making at European level, both through the CAP process and since then, is that we must combine the joint challenges of a responsible approach towards climate change in terms of mitigation and adaptation to climate change challenges while at the same time responding to global food security issues.
“I hope Ireland will set the global benchmark for how to produce food at a low emissions intensity. We will use science, innovation, breeding and grazing programmes, feed conversion efficiency management and all the other elements we are applying on Irish farms.
"In addition, we will audit and measure the performance on our farms. Every farming organisation in the country has signed up to all dairy farms in the country having a sustainability audit system on farms. Currently, we are measuring the greenhouse gas emissions from the herds on 48,000 beef farms.
"Ireland is the only country in the world doing this. Anyone who suggests that I, the Government and Ireland are not taking emissions from the agricultural sector seriously does not understand what we are doing. What I will not do is reduce herd size, when we have a good emissions record, to facilitate blunt targets that only apply to Ireland.”
“I will not restrict farmers from growing and expanding their businesses if they are doing a good job from a sustainability point of view, and we must win the argument at European level on that basis.”
