Ms Triona McCormack:

In respect of being in a fairly complex environment like UCD, it is a small enough complex environment but we have many different actors. This came up in a conversation I had with our energy researchers recently. Our production system was mentioned. Our methods of food production and our role may not be recognised in terms of our climate change targets. We are looking nationally at new models of energy management and, in that context, looking at CO2. One of the interesting debates and a real field of research for us in the next period will be the difference between methane emissions and CO2 emissions in terms of making an impact on climate change. I preface my remarks by saying that it is not my technical area but methane has a shorter half-life than CO2. It disappears in the environment more quickly, yet we do not have an adjustment for that.

In the context of national emission levels, we must consider what can be done in other sectors to balance our system so that we can continue with the kind of agrifood production that is valuable to our society and economy but that will involve bringing in other disciplines. Economic modellers are part of the answer here in order to find unique solutions for the Irish context. We need to look at our whole system, including energy, manufacturing and production to see if we can balance one against the other. That is a fairly high level answer to what was a detailed question. I am afraid that I cannot really answer the question on anaerobic digestion but we can come back to the committee on that because there are other experts in UCD who will be able to provide answers.