Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 6 March 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Climate Change Issues specific to Agriculture, Food and the Marine Sectors: Discussion (Resumed)

3:30 pm

Dr. Frank O'Mara:

We understand that our grasslands are sequestering carbon. It is a difficult thing to measure so to count it would be difficult. However, the challenge as to why we do not credit for it is a technical thing. Something has to be done different now than was being done pre-1990 in order to get credit. The grasslands were presumably sequestering carbon in the 1970s and 1980s, so they are only doing similar sequestration now. We would need additional sequestration. That is why forestry is additional sequestration. It is one thing-----