Professor John FitzGerald:

We need a land use plan but it needs to look at how it happens. More forestry and more biomass constitute part of the answer. I published research I carried out with Teagasc and ESB International 20 years ago. What became clear to me was that one can work out in theory that more trees means more biomass but making it happen, from a farmer's point of view, is something else. It goes back to what I said about behaviour.

We must get the price right but even if the price is right, things will not happen so it is about finding out the obstacles to the owners of the land making the necessary change. A very interesting article by Jasmina Behan, the head of the Government's economic service, talks about some of the obstacles facing farmers in shifting. That is where a significant amount of work is needed. How can we make it profitable or attractive for the owners of the land to change its use in a way that is consistent with climate change?