Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegates for their presentations. It is important for us to hear about the direct effects of climate change in Africa. We can see the effects of climate change in Ireland but it has a greater impact in Africa given that it is prone to drought and other weather extremes. We have not escaped it here. In respect of the climate change Bill, Ms Maanda Ngoitiko mentioned the importance of including firm targets which should be legally enforceable. It is obvious that the delegation considers that important. I too appreciate the importance of firm targets and, in fact, introduced a climate change Bill which provides for targets. Within the European Union, Ireland must reach a certain target by 2050. It is important to have five-year targets, or five-year carbon budgets, as they are called, as we have a different government every four or five years and various governments may not meet those targets.

If one does not do that, one runs into what is called a "carbon cliff", or a series of such cliffs from here to 2050. What are the delegation's views on that? There appears to be an idea that the State can leave it to each sector to come up with its own proposals and that we will, hopefully, hit the targets. That cannot happen. We must set clear targets for each sector. Allowing each sector to set its own targets makes it more of a wish list.

Ireland is a relatively small island, but is a huge food producer. Harvest 2020 sets a target to increase the amount of food being produced by 50% between 2011 and 2020. A very significant proportion of carbon emissions in the State are from agricultural activity. It catches us in a pincer movement. On the one hand, we must increase our food production to satisfy international demand while on the other we must reduce carbon emissions. On the plus side, most of the emissions come from grazing cattle as opposed to indoor feeding or the transportation of food over long distances. We have a particular issue due to our agricultural sector, which needs to be quantified accurately. We must get the balance right. While producing large amounts of food, we must quantify accurately the mitigation factors in forestry and open grassland. One of delegates may wish to offer a view on that.