Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Professor Ó Gallachóir knows that I have been critical of his work in one regard. I believe there is an overemphasis on the role of biomass, biogas, biomethane and biofuels in this projection of where we are going. Modelling what is going to happen next is always uncertain. A very good report was produced by a series of environmental NGOs such as Climate Action Network Europe, Greenpeace, Oxfam, Transport and Environment, the European Environmental Bureau, worldwide federations and wetlands associations concerning the pitfalls and potential of the role of bioenergy in EU climate and energy policy post 2020. I cite that report because there is a real concern in seeing biofuels as a solution in the transport area because we know that the effect of biofuels on land use is really acute. I remember someone high up in a UN agency being asked at a conference I attended how much biomass would be required worldwide if we were to replace our oil energy use with biomass. His answer was that we would need to use every single piece of biomass on the entire planet, with no food being produced because we would be using all of it and it would produce 20% of the energy we currently use from the oil sector. Looking at it from a global perspective, the reliance on biomass is not the silver bullet. We must be very careful. We should be looking at models such as those used by the Danes and others who agree that anything we do in biomass should possibly involve setting a global cap per country, because they say this problem will be tackled globally, and not going above that cap.

I have real concerns about some of the solutions here. I have real concerns about the possible use of biomethane and anaerobic digestion. If this is coupled with what I see from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, namely, a massive continuing increase in pig and poultry production involving animals fed on imported grain and thinking that is sustainable, we will have water problems and all sorts of other problems such as ammonia down the line. If we keep going with an agricultural model, which is all about global trade and plcs making money, which is trashing the environment, and call it green because we have some biogas at the end of it to run our transport system, it will be a flawed solution. Bord na Móna appeared before the committee. Bord na Móna has a significant future, but if we import three million or four million pellets or wood biomass from native forests somewhere else, which involves chopping down trees, and using half a million tonnes of our own biomass here, it will quadruple the price of biomass in the area where we need it most, which is combined heat and power in the food industry. There is all this talk about grass to gas when we face the risk of not being able to feed our cattle this winter if it is a long winter.

Does Professor Ó Gallachóir not agree that there needs to be a national land use study that would work out the land use implications of all this reliance on biomass that he seems to be promoting and that we should also check in on the international community, including the environmental NGOs, as to the likely long-term strategy with regard to the use of biomass on a global level? What is being proposed, which involves buying it all, shipping it in and burning it here, with two thirds of the energy ending up as heat going up a chimney, or a massive increase in pig and poultry production to give us anaerobic digestion as biogas, is just not sustainable.