Paul Deane's thoughts on the debate in Ireland on Agriculture and Climate Targets

Paul Deane in #MaREI University College Cork provides some thoughts on the debate in Ireland on Agriculture and Climate Targets.

1) We must focus on Policy and not blame people: Agricultural policy is the driver of practices that lead to emissions and policy should be the core focus of discussions. Current Agricultural policy places a greater emphasis on economic output rather than environmental protection and still fails to provide adequate financial remuneration to large portions of the farming community.?To be successful from a climate perspective new policy must focus on addressing this imbalance.

2) Sustainability is a prism and not a lens.?Greenhouse gas emissions are one element of sustainability. Agricultural policy must consider sustainability in all dimensions including social (It must be fair to farmers), financial (it must provide a dignified income for families), environmental (it must not harm land or add to air pollution, water pollution, or biodiversity loss) and climate (greenhouse gas emissions must be science-based). Current policy is failing at varying levels on all these measures and while much emphasis is placed on the possibility of carbon leakage leading to potential destruction of rainforests in Brazil the same concern must be shown for actual environmental damage in Ireland and the social inequity that intensive agricultural policy delivers.

3) Agriculture is an enabler of decarbonisation across society. Current emissions policy does not attribute the full emissions benefit of changing landuse to agriculture.?For example, biomethane production for heavy transport from a small portion (4%) of agricultural land can reduce transport emissions by 1 million tonnes. This could move agriculture from a 22% to a 27% reduction relative to 2018 but the benefit is attributed to transport rather than reflected in the agriculture sector. The same can be said for solar PV development and the power sector. This must be acknowledged and addressed.

4) New Policy must reduce the number of livestock but not the number of farmers: Significant emissions reduction (> 22%) require lower numbers of livestock and successful policy must ensure that farmers have financially and environmentally viable options to stay on the land and use it in different ways. Low-cost food production has a high environmental cost and Ireland should seek an Agri Policy to deliver high-quality food that does not breach our environmental or social capacity to produce it.

5)It is hard. All of this is difficult, but the sector has always been responsive to policy. The challenge for policymakers is to ensure sustainable food production, environmental protection and financial certainty go hand in hand.?My colleague Prof?Hannah Daly?has an excellent piece on the trade-offs, implications and challenges of allocating current carbon budgets in Ireland and puts some numbers with the conservation which you can read here https://bit.ly/3O6RyuP