The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) has said that the agriculture sector can still meet its 25% greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction target by 2030, despite suggestions by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that the sector will fall short.
The EPA’s report, Ireland’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Projections, which was published today (Tuesday, May 28), indicated that Ireland’s agriculture would reduce its emissions by 18% by 2030 (relative to 2018) in an “ambitious scenario” with additional measures beyond policies currently in operation.
This ‘with additional measures’ (WAM) scenario would involve the continuation of current measures in addition to further ones outlined in the Climate Action Plan 2024, the Teagasc GHG Marginal Abatement Cost Curve (MACC), and other programmes.
However, the WAM scenario does not include policies and measures where the EPA “could not see an implementation pathway to merit their inclusion at this point”.
Such non-included measures reflects farm diversification measures, with the EPA saying that further information is needed to model an implementation pathway for those measures.
Reacting to the EPA’s report, the IFA said that, if all additional measures set out in the Climate Action Plan 2024 are implemented, agriculture can achieve its 25% emissions reduction target for 2030.
“The EPA climate report published today shows, with additional measures as set out in the Climate Action Plan 2024, emissions from agriculture will reduce by 18%,” John Murphy, the IFA’s environment chairperson, said.
“The reality is that some other additional measures set out in the Climate Action Plan for agriculture were excluded from the emissions projections report.
“This is because additional data is required to account for a potential 1.5 million tonnes in carbon dioxide equivalent reduction due to planned diversification measures,” Murphy said.
“Hopefully this can be resolved by next year and we will see these diversification measures included within the projections report and we will get a clearer picture of the potential of the sector,” he added.
The IFA environment chairperson said that, although farmers are adopting new measures to reduce emissions on farms, a “whole-of-sector implementation” is needed if targets are to be achieved.