Emission savings brought about by sequestering carbon “won’t automatically be assigned to the agricultural sector”, according to one non-government organisation (NGO), Friends of the Earth.
In a statement on Friday (July 2) reacting to the amendments agreed in the Seanad for the Climate Action Bill – that will allow recognition for carbon removals as part of sectoral targets and carbon budgets – Friends of the Earth gave its view.
Commenting on the amendments backed by the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), director of Friends of the Earth Oisín Coghlan said:
“I worry that the amendments to count removals as well as emissions in our carbon budgeting process will encourage the IFA to continue to mislead its members on climate action.
“Despite today’s vote there are a number of inescapable truths the farm leaders have to reckon with.
“Polluting emissions from agriculture have to start coming down, immediately and substantially. There are not enough removals to avoid having to reduce polluting emissions and there never will be.
“Removals will be calculated on scientifically strict UN criteria and at the moment our land is a net emitter of pollution rather than absorbing pollution.
“I hope good land use planning will change that and our forests, peatlands and soils will indeed absorb more pollution than they emit in the future.
“But whatever savings there are won’t automatically be assigned to the agricultural sector. They may well be for the next 10 or even 20 years. But ultimately, as we get to near-zero emissions overall, other sectors will lay claim to them to as well in order to achieve net zero.
“I can well imagine CRH asking why should Glanbia get all the offsets while they have to eliminate every last tonne of their emissions,” Coghlan claimed.
Outlining his view that the Seanad vote “does not get agriculture off the hook in any way”, the NGO director said:
“It does clarify the challenge however, which is to both radically reduce polluting emissions and to enhance carbon sinks that remove pollution from the atmosphere.
“We’ll work with any farm organisation that accepts that reality and embraces that challenge,” the Friends of the Earth director concluded.
Earlier this year, IFA Environment Committee chairman Paul O’Brien stressed that farmers have to retain ownership of what sequestration potential they have, stating:
“Farmers should own their carbon sequestration ability once it’s been quantified. That should stay very firmly with farmers and agriculture in general.
“A budget has to work both ways,” he stressed – both for carbon being emitted and sequestered.