Irish agriculture policy lacks ambition to address the climate and biodiversity crises

Our carbon emissions are significant due to intensive agriculture and drainage ofpeatlands, as well as a heavy reliance on fossil fuels, writes Catherine Conlon

Dairy farms with single grass species mean little survives in these fields. Birds have no place to nest, insects have nothing to eat, and no flowers bloom. Picture: iStock

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has issued a "final warning" that rising emissions are pushing the world to the brink of irrevocable damage.

Global warming of 1.1C above pre-industrial levels is the result of more than a century of burning fossil fuels as well as unequal and unsustainable energy and land use. The report reiterates a message of opportunity, but that people have to stop treating the earth’s atmosphere as a massive dustbin.