Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Monday, 8 July 2013
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht
Heads of Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2013: Discussion (Resumed)
12:45 pm
Mr. Stewart Stevenson:
There are two things to mention in response to that question. We have to count the carbon cost, or the six gases cost, of all the activity we undertake. There is a cost to us, in carbon terms, of our exports of farmed salmon to China. That is for sure. I should mention that our legislation also provides that we have to measure the cost of what we consume. It is proving quite difficult to work that out at the moment. We are running on a five-year cycle in that context. This measurement will enable us see whether the one of the effects of the things we are doing is simply to export carbon-intensive activity elsewhere. If we then reimport the products, we will be measuring that. I think that will be useful. We are not held accountable for that, however, although we might be in the future.
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