Livestock main producer of greenhouse gas

Ireland’s huge numbers of cattle and sheep — more than twice the human population — are the country’s single biggest producer of greenhouse gases and make it almost impossible to reach EU targets.

But the Government has had a breakthrough in persuading the European Commission to offset the methane gas emitted by the more than six million cattle and three million sheep against the amount of carbon stored in the country’s forests, bogs, and grasslands.

Ireland must cut its emissions by 20% by 2020 but achieving this was proving difficult, and new targets just announced of an average 40% cut by the EU by 2030 would add to Ireland’s problems.