Ms Edwina Love:

We are pleased to be here today and have the opportunity to address the committee on the matter of sectoral emissions ceilings. As members of the committee will be aware, the achievement of a 51% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions on an economy-wide basis by 2030 is extremely ambitious.

That said, as the Department has stated previously, I wish to re-emphasise once again that the agriculture and land-use sectors will do all that is possible to play their part in meeting Ireland's climate ambition while maintaining food production. Farming has long been an important and integral facet of Ireland's economic, social and cultural history, and this is referenced in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act. Climate change is having an effect on the context in which agriculture operates, and the sector fully appreciates the need to address emissions from agriculture and land use and to build resilience into future development. The policy approach is structured around three pillars. First, we must continue to reduce emissions, using the best science and best agricultural practices. Second, we must continue to sequester carbon and increase our avoidance of emissions through increased afforestation and better land-management practices. Third, we must make a contribution to sustainable energy and displacement of fossil fuels and energy intensive materials.

In terms of mitigation, the Climate Action Plan 2021 sets the target of a 22% to 30% reduction in agricultural greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. This means that agriculture emissions need to reduce to between 16 to 18 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, Mt CO2 eq., in 2030 - an absolute reduction of between 5 to 7 Mt CO2 eq. It is worth noting that to even achieve the reductions at the lower end of the target range over the decade will require a significant transformational change in the sector on a scale that has not been seen before for Irish agriculture. Measures such as reducing and changing fertiliser type, earlier finishing age of prime beef animals and increased organics will get us perhaps 70% of the way there, but further measures, including the technological development of methane reducing feed additives and incentivising diversification opportunities for farmers such as growing grass for an expanding anaerobic digestion, AD, industry will be needed. Unfortunately, an unhelpful narrative may have developed that a 5 Mt reduction in the sector is somehow business is usual. I wish to state for the public record that this is clearly not the case. Regulation, public supports and incentives, in conjunction with private industry supports, will all play an important role. In terms of regulation, the Department has committed to the development of a national fertiliser register of compliance, requiring primary legislation, and reductions in chemical nitrogen allowances under the nitrates regulations. Enhanced training and advisory services will also be essential to underpin this transition. In terms of public supports, the CAP strategic plan, which is currently going through the approval process in Brussels, will undoubtedly be a key pillar of the State's climate action support. The CAP strategic plan will provide €9.8 billion to support the economic, environmental and social sustainability of farmers and rural communities. Key elements of the plan include a new eco-scheme, which has a number of climate-and environment-focused farming practices, which will be open to all farmers. These include practices aimed at reducing chemical nitrogen usage, increasing tree planting, increasing nature-and biodiversity-rich land areas and encouraging extensive livestock production. There is also an ambitious new Pillar 2 environmental scheme, targeted at 50,000 participants. This will be underpinned by a greater focus on results-based actions and on collective actions aimed at achieving landscape-scale benefits. An organic farming scheme will be aimed at more than tripling the area of agricultural land that is farmed organically. A suckler carbon efficiency scheme will contribute to the objective of earlier finishing times for prime beef cattle and a revised targeted agricultural modernisation scheme, TAMS, which will provide more capital funding for on-farm investment than the preceding scheme and which will have increased incentives for environmental investments including renewable energy. In addition, two Food Vision 2030 working groups on dairy, beef and sheep meat have been established, which will set out a clear roadmap to enable the sectors to reduce emissions.

I would like to speak specifically about the distinct characteristics of biogenic methane as referenced in the climate Act. The EPA has confirmed that methane emissions may need to reduce by up to 30% to even reach the 5 Mt CO2 eq. cut in agriculture emissions. This is very much at the upper end of international ambition and will make Ireland a leader in this space. We will do everything we can to achieve this level of reduction. A 30% reduction in methane was also referenced as a likely required pathway by the Climate Change Advisory Council. This must be benchmarked against the fact that a 3% reduction in methane emissions from the Irish livestock herd over the decade would ensure no additional global warming arises from the methane produced by it. This is due to the short-lived nature of the gas in the atmosphere.

I will now turn to LULUCF, which is the other area where the sector can make a difference. The crops, trees, hedgerows and soils that can sequester and store vast amounts of carbon can also be a source of carbon. It is, therefore, imperative that we reduce the volume of CO2 emitted from soils while maximising carbon sequestration as we aim to reach climate neutrality by 2050. We have committed already to a number of targets around land use and forestry. Again, these will not be easy measures to implement. We are placing increasing demands on farmers and landowners around improving the management of soils. The numbers here are significant and include reducing the management intensity of up to 80,000 ha of organic soils by 2030; better management of 450,000 ha of mineral grasslands; increasing cover crops and straw incorporation as carbon storing measures; and increasing afforestation rates to enhance carbon sinks. The reduced management intensity of organic soils is an entirely new area of work with much uncertainty and complexity, to which Ireland will pioneer an approach. Similarly, we need to address the downward trend in afforestation, and grasp the opportunities that existing forests provide in producing timber and wood products to contribute to a green economy and increase the use of wood in the built environment. Implementing these measures will be challenging and even more so given the increases in the gaps to target as a result of the 2022 LULUCF inventory refinement. We have commenced a programme of work to fill the existing knowledge and data gaps and to understand the potential contributions towards climate ambition from land-use improvements and set in train the development of a land-use plan, based on these findings. A new national forestry strategy and forestry programme are also in development and are currently the subject of detailed consultation. The focus will be grounded in the principles of the right tree in the right place for the right reasons, including the right management. Our aim is to have these concluded and in place for the start of 2023 with a new vision and incentives to attract farmers and landowners to consider planting trees, which is a key part of our climate actions.

I will now deal with sustainable energy. We are doing what we can to meet the 51% economy-wide target set by the Government. This includes making a positive and important contribution towards the decarbonisation of the energy system. We will achieve that through applying the energy efficiency principle first and reducing energy use at farm level; deploying renewable energy technology at farm level for self-consumption but also a contribution to renewable energy generation through export of electricity to the grid; and providing forest biomass and agriculture feedstocks to the generation of renewable energy, such as biomass for heat, agriculture feedstocks for production of biogas and biomethane from AD. Through these actions, the agriculture and land-use sector is in effect contributing a total of 3.4 Mt CO2 eq. to the decarbonisation of the energy system, which is often overlooked.

There has been considerable commentary in recent times on what the sector is or is not doing to address the climate challenge, but our approach has been consistent: to reduce all emissions. While reducing emissions in the agriculture sector specifically is a priority, there are opportunities for the sector to contribute elsewhere and these actions are just as important in the context of an economy-wide target.

As identified in Food Vision 2030, there is a critical need to consider the three pillars of social, economic and environmental sustainability as we move forward. Let us not forget what agriculture is about: it is about the production of food, and, at a global level, our competitive advantage is in the production of pasture-based animal proteins. There are significant challenges with the reduction of methane within our pasture-based livestock production system, but we believe solutions will emerge over the decade, along with the significant contribution early finishing ages will make here. On the land-use side, reducing the volume of CO2 emitted from soils is critically important. Notwithstanding, Ireland will only achieve climate-neutral status by 2050 through land-use removals provided from trees and soils and these removals will be delivered by the agriculture and land-use sector. Similarly, on the energy side, I have outlined the significant contribution that the sector will make to decarbonising the energy system. Accordingly, the targets assigned to the sector must be proportionate and reflective of the overall contribution. Unlike in other sectors where technologies or lifestyle choices can be utilised,there are no silver bullet solutions to reducing emissions from agriculture and land use. It will require a sustained effort for change to happen. We are happy to take any questions members may have.