Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 13 September 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Engagement with the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications

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

The climate action plan will continue playing a central role in emissions reduction. It will set out plans for reducing nitrogen. The sectoral emissions ceiling is putting it up to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to deliver changes in order that we meet our nitrogen fertiliser reduction targets. His Department has done a great deal of work on improving the breeding stock, which is another core measure that has been agreed. Delivering the reduction in the average finishing age is also a matter for that Department. We have a good idea of how much doing that will reduce emissions by and the Department has committed to doing so. It has also committed to increasing organic production fivefold and delivering 5.7 TWh of methane through anaerobic digestion.

All of the core and additional measures are based on detailed analysis and knowledge about what is possible. They have not been plucked out of thin air and we have to deliver them. The bones of the plan are there. The climate action plan as it relates to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine will be updated this autumn and the Department will now have to deliver. If it does not, it will be in breach of the legislation. That is the approach we are taking, namely, to agree the ceilings and core measures, which we must then deliver.

I am sorry. What was the Deputy's second question?

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