The CEO of Ibec – the business and employer group – warned the government that a proposed change in carbon accounting methodology would see the national herd reduced to 2011 levels.
Danny McCoy told Taoiseach Micheál Martin that the move could result in a loss to the Irish economy of up to €7.8 billion per year and would be “extremely damaging to the agri-food industry and to rural Ireland”.
In a letter sent in October, the Ibec CEO said the agri-food sector had “very serious and urgent concerns” about “a proposed new carbon accounting methodology being considered by government in the carbon budgeting process”.
McCoy said that although possible methodological changes are technical in nature, they require very careful consideration and evaluation.
He urged that the government use the established net-net methodology rather than the proposed gross-net method, which includes land use emissions, for carbon budgets.
It is understood that despite the concerns raised the government adopted the change in order to meet the net-zero carbon emissions target by 2050.
Carbon Accounting
Danny McCoy’s letter claimed that the gross-net carbon accounting policy would “totally undermine the viability of Irish agri-food, including dairy”.
“The agri-sector and particularly the dairy sector has an ambitious plan to support climate change best practice to scientific standards, based on accepted and solid science methodologies,” he wrote.
The correspondence pointed to a study carried out by EY (Ernst and Young) in the summer of 2021 on the impact of the Climate Act on the Irish dairy sector.
McCoy said that using gross-net evaluation to achieve the proposed 51% reduction in Ireland’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions would require a reduction in milk supply of 4.9 billion litres.
“This, if obligated, would set back the dairy sector to 2010 output levels, and result in substantial industry and on-farm job losses.
“Indications are that using a gross-net policy rather than the established net-net accounting method would lead to a reduction of the national herd size to 2011 levels, to comply with national climate law,” he stated.
The letter also included analysis of how the carbon budget accounting change would impact each county:
