Scientists reject IFA's 'pretty atrocious' methane claims

The IFA claimed the IPCC report “clearly confirms that biogenic methane from cattle should be accounted for differently as it only stays in the atmosphere for a relatively short period of time”. File picture: Denis Minihane.

Climate scientists have vehemently denied claims from the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) that methane emissions from cattle are not as harmful to the atmosphere as previously thought.

Peter Thorne, Maynooth University's director of the ICARUS climate research centre and the Irish coordinating lead author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), tweeted that such an interpretation is a “pretty atrocious selective view” on what the IPCC report said regarding methane.