Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 8 April 2014
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Overview of Land Use: EPA and Teagasc
3:25 pm
Mr. Phillip O'Brien:
It did not mention Ireland in that context. That is more a matter for working group III, which is being convened in Berlin at the moment and deals with mitigation. Its discussion document will not specify particular countries. It refers to consumption-based accounting and production-based accounting. Ireland takes account of all of the methane we produce because we produce the food whereas other people eat it. Under consumption-based accounting, that methane would be accounted for in the country of consumption. There are pros and cons in the discussion, but the document that will be published next week will not show a major differentiation. The Chairman must also bear in mind that we consume a high level of embedded emissions in other products within our economy, for example, cars.