Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

We could. Right now, we do not have a target for land use as part of our national climate plan. We do not have a target for emissions from land as opposed to agricultural activity. In Ireland, land is a net emitter because of the significance of our peatlands that are drained and in agricultural use. The Senator mentioned the Teagasc work on the assessment of emissions from peatlands earlier. That will have an impact on the calculations of net emissions from land use in Ireland. That is something we have to take into account. It is clear that there are two ways to mitigate emissions from land. One is by changing the water table on peatlands and the other is by planting trees. One way or another, we have to plant lots of trees if we are to get next or near a net zero target by 2050, unless some dramatic new technology comes along that I cannot and do not predict. If someone were to say to me that we should resile from these targets, I would say to be careful because we have to at least have the ambition to get to net zero by 2050. That means we have to plant as many trees as we can between now and 2050.