Results 5,021-5,040 of 10,791 for speaker:Matt Carthy

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Calculation of Methane Emissions: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: I will stop Professor Allen there on the basis of time. He has spoken about the need to achieve geological net zero. I do not know if this is his area of expertise but I wonder if he could speak to what those mining operations that are emitting this methane are actually used for? In many instances we would not have products like this smartphone and other technologies were it not for those...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Calculation of Methane Emissions: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: I think it is because part of the problem we have had in this country is that when it comes to imposing taxes on ordinary consumers or penalising ordinary workers or farmers there is no problem and we can move at the speed of light. When it comes to actually addressing data centres, private jet travel or areas that are actually the real causes of pollution it is very much a case of see no...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Calculation of Methane Emissions: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: Will Professor Allen comment on the farm-by-farm assessment and whether we should have a route enabled for that? Ms Webster talked about a number of figures being out. She made reference to dairy emissions being overestimated by 18%. Does Professor Allen share the view that the figures we are working on could be as inaccurate as that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Calculation of Methane Emissions: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: I get that. I have a brief question for Professor Allen. Am I correct in saying that for his system of accounting to be taken on board, we would need to get international agreement, which would essentially mean a new Paris accord?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Calculation of Methane Emissions: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: Okay.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Calculation of Methane Emissions: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: Does Professor Allen not see a potential issue arising if different states are reporting their emissions in different ways?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: Just for some background information, I have a quick question for Professor Thorne. He mentioned the increased prevalence of methane in the atmosphere and said that over the past 700 years it has increased to the tune 1,000 parts per billion.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: Of that 1,000 parts per billion, does he have a breakdown of where that methane emerged in terms of extraction mining, ruminants, rice fields, waste and the different areas from which he said it can emerge?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: I will put a few questions together. I am trying to get a sense of all this and where the witnesses are coming from, particularly Professor McMullin's comments about CO2and the difficulties in sequestering or abstracting that from the atmosphere. Am I correct in deducing that, essentially, the premise is that farming per semay not have been the cause of the problem but is very much an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: Over the weekend, journalists were critiquing Opposition Deputies because some of us would not specify a specific percentage figure for the sectoral ceiling for agriculture. I hope those journalists are watching today and understand that the information Mr. Kierans has been talking about, which is being used by his Department, has not been made available. We have sought copies of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: It is an easy one. There is a range of 22% to 30% for the sectoral ceiling for agriculture. What measures would be required for each point along that scale?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: Would it not be fair to say that measures taken on afforestation and anaerobic digestion should be assigned, in terms of credits, to LULUCF as opposed to agriculture? They are the only two specific areas raised and are not actually related to agricultural emissions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: That makes no sense whatsoever. Does the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine consider a scenario where it would be appropriate or necessary for the State to apply linear cuts in respect of a particular type of agriculture, for example to state across the board that every farm or every farm within a region would be required to reduce its production by a certain number of percentage...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: Moving on to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine officials, the one point that is indisputable is that every farm is unique, but does the Department accept we are at a disadvantage in that we do not have any mechanism to assess on a farm-by-farm basis the sequestration, storage and emissions that are currently happening on each unique farm?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: How will that be measured?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: Are there no measures in place and no proposals?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: Here is my difficulty. I have seen no proposal to do that at a practical level. What I saw was more general, baseline studies that say "This is what the average farm with 15 cows emits". My fear is that you could have a situation where a farmer is actually engaging in forestry, ensuring the hedgerows are protected and expanded, planting mixed species swards, engaging in anaerobic digestion...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: We could have our sectorial ceilings imposed next week.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: The difficulty is that we are going to have sectorial ceilings next week. According to the opening statement there is little information. It is very clear that it is not subject to the Oireachtas process and that the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has a very minimal role. He is consulted in all of this. We heard from the Department of the Environment, Climate and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Discussion (20 Jul 2022)

Matt Carthy: What number can the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine reach?