“Farmers aren’t to blame for climate change, that’s not the case at all, but we all do have to take responsibility for climate change,” the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Leo Varadkar, has said.
The Tánaiste was responding to a comment from a farmer in the crowd at the Fine Gael stand at 2022 National Ploughing Championships.
The farmer expressed his frustration at the current climate situation and said that farmers are being “blamed unfairly” for creating a large source of the climate emissions.
In his response, the Tánaiste said: “It is about what we eat, how we travel, how much we fly and how much energy we use and that’s the truth of it.
“Climate change is being caused by people, by all of us.”
The Tánaiste praised farmers for their ongoing efforts to tackle emissions, saying: “I believe farmers are doing a lot already – quite frankly – to bring down emissions.
“If anything, farmers are performing better than other sectors, whether it’s electricity or the transport industry, when it comes to bringing down emissions.”
Commenting on the task of reducing emissions, he said: “It is going to be a big challenge.
“If we don’t turn the tide on climate change, we’re going to have serious problems in agriculture, in particular in the coming years because we won’t have the water. It’s in all of our interests that we turn the tide on climate change.
“We have to be the generation that turns the tide on climate change and biodiversity and we all have to work together to achieve that.
“If we can’t meet that target, we’re not going to be closing down factories or businesses, there has to be a practical approach to this.”
Referencing a question asked earlier in the session, Minister Varadkar said: “If we don’t turn the tide on climate change, the value of the farm you want to pass on to your son or daughter is going to be a lot less, hence why we should work together on this and I think we can.
“We have a target and we all have to work together to try and achieve that target and it needs to be a partnership,” he said.