An Taisce has been accused of issuing “near-hysterical lists of actions” which could return rural areas to subsistence farming, by the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA).
An Taisce called for a “mandatory reduction in dairy cow numbers” to be implemented to tackle climate change following the publication of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The IPCC report highlighted that there are “multiple, feasible and effective options” currently available to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
“Emissions should be decreasing by now and will need to be cut by almost half by 2030, if warming is to be limited to 1.5°,” it said.
Scientists also warned in the report that taking the right action now could result “in the transformational change essential for a sustainable, equitable world”.
But the environmental body, An Taisce, believes that against the backdrop of significant climate warnings the world, and in particular, Ireland, does not seem “to get the message”.
The organisation said: “The two main parties in government acquiesce in stifling measures in order to keep their key supporters onside for the next election.
“The climate emergency demands emergency action and toes to be tread on. Why are we not getting the leadership that the problem and the people demand?”
It proposed a mandatory reduction in dairy cow numbers over the next two years and an end to the nitrates derogation as actions that could be immediately taken in Ireland.
But the ICMSA has hit back at An Taisce for issuing what it described as “performative and near-hysterical lists of actions that had to be taken immediately and “without any other valuation or analysis other than An Taisce’s”.
ICMSA president, Pat McCormack, also accused An Taisce of responding to any new “restrictions imposed on farmers by the government and the European Union “by inventing its own lists of restrictions that must all be “implemented immediately, or global apocalypse must follow”.
“There’s actually a point where it’s no longer possible to ignore the fact that An Taisce doesn’t appear to be interested in fixing the problem so much as changing the question.
“The rest of us are trying to fix the problem of transitioning farming and food production through to low-carbon sustainability – that’s our question.
“An Taisce is not interested in that question, the question that they are asking and answering is: what measures can we get the government to enact that will end Irish commercial food production and return rural areas to subsistence farming?” the ICMSA president said.
He said the environmental body could not set a direction for the entire country to follow because it had no mandate to do so.
“Who elected An Taisce? How dare they presume to tell us – any of us – what the Irish people demand?
“I think this is jaw-dropping arrogance and is just another sign that so far from being part of the climate solution, An Taisce is rapidly and tragically becoming part of the problem”, McCormack added.