Assembly votes to tax farmers over carbon emissions

Farmers should be taxed on greenhouse gas emissions and all state subsidies for peat extraction should end, the Citizens’ Assembly will tell the Government as part of its final report on tackling climate change.

Thirteen recommendations will make up the report, to be finalised in the new year. It will make clear concerns that the State is not doing enough to encourage, require, or lead the public by example in trying to create carbon-neutral homes, industries, workplaces, and transport. The 75 members of the assembly, who wrapped up a second weekend on the climate change agenda yesterday, voted overwhelmingly for a range of measures aimed at cutting carbon emissions.

They said they wanted a new body, or beefed-up existing body, to vet all proposed new laws for impacts on climate change, and to take legal proceedings against the State where it fails to fulfil its obligations on climate change.