According to the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), there’s a “huge amount of work underway on farms to reduce emissions, which in time will be captured” in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) data.
Reacting to the publication of the EPA’s provisional greenhouse gas emissions for Ireland for 2020, IFA Environment Committee chair Paul O’Brien said that farmers are “committed to playing their part in reducing emissions and have already made significant investments to improve efficiency and reduce emissions”.
“Farming is uniquely placed to remove carbon from the atmosphere. By enhancing the management of our soils, hedgerows and forest, we can increase carbon storage,” O’Brien said.
“But many of our carbon stores, such as our hedgerows, are not being captured in the inventory. It is vital that these carbon stores are measured and farmers are supported to manage, be it hedgerows or soils, to optimise the carbon sequestered.
“There is no silver bullet. We will need to continue the hard work and make significant investment over the next decades to increase efficiencies and meet the enormous emission reduction challenge.
“We need the government [to] support farmers as we adopt new knowledge, practices and technology.
“Agriculture is committed to remaining one of the most efficient and low emission food producers in the world, and we must continue to adapt and adopt new technology and knowledge, to play our part in addressing climate change.”
O’Brien said that there are “significant opportunities for diversification” in the agricultural sector that would support emission reductions “that are being thwarted by government policy”.
“This includes the onerous regulatory system for afforestation and management of farm-scale forestry and the lack of a farm-scale renewable strategy,” he added.
“This must be addressed as a matter of urgency if we are to meet the targets.”
According to the EPA data, agriculture emissions increased by 1.4% in 2020, “driven by increased activity in all areas, including a 3.2% increase in the number of dairy cows”.