Dr. David Wilson:

Forestry on organic and peat soils has long been contentious. In our NIR reporting, we report it at a tier 3 level, the highest level possible, which means it is based on country-specific data and is at a high level of accuracy. There has long been a thought that the soil emission pool in that model has been unrealistic. It is cited at 0.59 tonnes, whereas relevant data from nearby sites suggest it should be at least 1 tonne, if not 2 tonnes, higher than that. If that is factored into the model, it would flip the forestry sector on organic soils from being a net CO2 sink to being a net CO2 source. A large proportion of the new data are based on work from the University of Limerick, where soil CO2 emissions were quantified from eight forestry sites. A new emission factor was developed and has been submitted for review in a peer review journal. It confirmed what many of us had acknowledged and noted over the past ten or 20 years, namely, that emissions from drained peat are higher than the initial emission factor of 0.59 tonnes that was used in the model. This is, of course, problematic for the Bord na Móna sites that are coming into availability. If they cannot be rewetted, what can we do with them? Should we plant trees?

Now the data would suggest that they will continue to remain a CO2 sink even if they are forested. That will have to be addressed with further study.