Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Lumley. I very much value the work An Taisce does. It should be commended on what it does, such as green schools on the education side, which is very important, but most especially on the advocacy side, where An Taisce runs the operation of membership fees and donations from private individuals around Ireland who are concerned about environmental protection and Ireland's roles and responsibilities. As an organisation, An Taisce has played a very significant role in Ireland facing up to both its moral and legal duties when it comes to improving our environment locally and, indeed, globally.

Specifically in order to aid our work in developing a submission on the climate action plan, I ask the witnesses about the recalculation of methane and nitrous oxide emissions by the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, in November 2020. In the opening statement, the witnesses concluded that we have significantly underestimated our emissions over the last few years. Perhaps they could speak more about this.

On the issue of carbon leakage, which was raised, we import approximately 4 million tonnes of animal feed. Some years half of that has been imported, including soy from countries like Brazil. EU imports of soya bean feed have been directly linked to illegal deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. Some 20% of EU feed imports come from Brazil, according to a 2020 article in Science magazine.

What impact might climate change have on the need for us to import animal feed into Ireland? What effect would that have on causing further carbon leakage from Ireland and what can we do to reduce the effects of Irish and EU agriculture on Amazonian deforestation?