Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The science around land use emissions keeps changing in terms of our understanding of what the best estimate from scientists is, the impact of our use of wetlands, the nature of our forestry system and the land use impacts of what we are doing. There have been some positive developments in the scientific understanding in that we did not have as much drained land as we thought, which helped us in terms of a lower emissions profile. On the other hand, as for the understanding of the impact of forestry on wetlands and a changing Irish forestry, because we do not have as much new afforestation occurring now as we did 30 or 40 years ago, when the commercial forests planted then, often with Sitka spruce, lodgepole pine and so on, come to be cleared, that will also reduce our carbon store in the land use area.