Professor Alan Matthews:

Once the Government receives advice from the Climate Change Advisory Council on the overall carbon budget, it will be up to the Government to set sectoral targets. Obviously, we do not yet have a sectoral target for agriculture.

My sense is that there are measures that have not yet been adopted. As I say, the two main gases that we are talking about when we talk about agricultural emissions are methane and nitrous oxide. Certainly, on the nitrous oxide side, there are measures available but they are not being taken up and adopted to the extent necessary. This is where I suggest that the committee perhaps should look at a little bit at what is necessary to incentivise the change there to encourage greater adoption.

In the short term to 2030, reducing methane emissions is really around animal numbers. Clearly, per animal, dairy cows have a larger emissions footprint than beef animals and that is important to take into account. We know that many dairy farmers benefit, from, for example, nitrates regulation derogation, and there is potential there. The nitrates derogations are there to protect water quality but there is potential there to integrate. We need to look at this issue in a more holistic way to integrate the protection of water with climate action. There is potential there to ask dairy farmers to do more, if one likes, in terms of reducing absolute emissions. I absolutely agree with the emphasis that Ms O'Neill put on that aspect. There is potential to move. The question is one of incentivising the sector to make those changes.