Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

If we are going to reduce carbon emissions, we will obviously have to measure them. One of the many failings of the carbon action plan was that it did not even set out how we were going to measure emissions but rather that the Government will decide how will do so, presumably by way of a statutory instrument. Will either the Minister or his colleague the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, tell me how we are going to measure emissions? Has that been determined by the Government? Whether we use the global warming potential, GWP, measurement criterion of GWP100 or GWP* will have a strong bearing for the purposes of agriculture, given that methane is treated very differently depending on whether one measurement criterion is used rather than another. Methane is a relatively short-lived gas compared with CO2 and how it breaks down. Either way, the environmental lobby will say there is a strong argument for reducing methane because we can get a quick hit with it.

However, the obvious corollary of that is that if one is reducing agricultural methane as a means to get a quick hit, one is not treating the problem.

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