The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has said that recent commentary around agricultural emissions has angered farmers.
ICMSA president Pat McCormack believes that the tone of the debate in recent days has not been helpful and will do little to foster a partnership approach to meeting climate change targets.
“Farmers are very angry at the aggressive approach being taken against our sector in recent days and some of these commentators need to inform themselves of the facts.
“Irish farmers have a critical role to play in Ireland’s climate strategy and we need to move away from demonising the sector,” he said.
Instead, McCormack said that real plans must be put in place to allow the agricultural sector to continue producing sustainable, quality food.
“ICMSA’s firm view is that a 22% target is hugely challenging for the agriculture sector but it is a target that is realistic and achievable if the government puts in place appropriate supports, which it has completely failed to do to date,” he outlined.
However, McCormack noted that a 22% target would not be the end of farmers’ contribution to climate change.
“The facts are that under the inventory on emissions, some significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emission measures taken by farmers on their farms will not be recognised under the agriculture inventory and thus will not contribute to the 22% reduction.
“Instead, these reductions will be allocated to e.g., the energy or LULUCF [Land Use, Land-use Change and Forestry] sectors and thus the contribution for farmers will be substantially higher than the 22% reduction.
“If every farmer in the country installed solar panels on their farms producing renewable carbon-free energy, this would not be reflected in the 22% reduction figure, instead it would be allocated to the energy inventory,” the ICMSA president outlined.
“If every farmer planted 100 native trees that would sequester carbon and also contribute to biodiversity, this would not be reflected in the 22% reduction but would be allocated to the LULUCF sector,” he added.
ICMSA welcomed comments from Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communication, Eamon Ryan that there will be no compulsory reduction in livestock numbers.
“It is important to say that Irish farmers are already working to become more sustainable and individual farmers must be allowed to develop their business in a sustainable manner going forward,” he said.
Figures released today (Thursday, July 21) by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) show that emissions from agriculture increased by 3% in 2021 compared to 2020.
McCormack expected the 2022 figure will be lower due to a drop in fertiliser sales, increased use of protected urea and continued growth in low emission slurry spreading (LESS).