Oliver Moore: Mutton and hurleys to save the world

Professor Alan Matthews has made a very strong case for a move of land use from livestock to forestry, based on Ireland’s EU climate change commitments.

Though Matthews is Professor Emeritus of European agricultural policy at Trinity College Dublin, this is not just academic pontification, because he sits on the recently formed Climate Change Advisory Council, which is tasked with overseeing Ireland’s transition to a low carbon economy.

His point is that under new EU rules from 2020, forestry can be used as an offset, whereas now, livestock’s full emissions are not measured.