Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach and Senator Maria Byrne for raising this very important issue.

The Climate Action Plan 2021 commits the agriculture sector to reducing its emissions by between 21% and 30%, which is a doubling of commitment based on the Climate Action Plan 2019. This means agriculture emissions are to reduce to between 16 million to 18 million tonnes in 2030, which is an absolute reduction of between 5 million and 7 million tonnes. The sector will also contribute additionally through reducing land-based emissions, through better managing our soils and, in particular, peat soils.The focus over the next decade will be on a significant cut in chemical nitrogen use, by making better use of organic manures and transitioning to clover and multispecies swards. The sector will also transition away from the use of use of calcium ammonium nitrate and will use protected urea as its main source of chemical fertiliser. This will help reduce absolute farm emissions. The beef sector will need to transition to a system that reduces the average finishing age from the current 27-month average to 24 months. This will reduce absolute methane emissions on farms.

While existing measures and technologies will bring agriculture very close to the upper end of its proposed agreed range, new technologies or some diversification will be needed. While the sector broadly will be able to maintain agricultural output in our beef and dairy sectors, it is clear that emissions from the dairy sector present a significant challenge. The objective of the recently convened Food Vision 2030 dairy group is to consider how best to stabilise and then reduce emissions from the dairy sector to ensure that the overall sector’s climate targets remain within reach.

The Common Agricultural Policy strategic plan, CSP, for 2023 to 2027 will be an important delivery mechanism to achieve our climate ambition. The environmental and climate ambition within the CSP will be aligned to the new green architecture of the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP. This will operate across both pillars of CAP expenditure to achieve a coherent overall approach. A huge increase in funding for a CAP strategic plan will support farm incomes, while significantly increasing environmental ambition. A total expenditure under the plan to €9.83 billion by the end of 2027 is planned. This is a clear example of our desire to support our farmers and the tremendous work that they do.

Critical to reducing the climate footprint of Irish agriculture is the role of research, innovation and knowledge exchange. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine funds research in this area through national and international competitive funding mechanisms that over the past six years have allocated up to €30 million on climate, greenhouse gas, GHG, emission mitigation and climate-related co-benefit research. Coupled to this is the grant-in-aid to Teagasc, such as the €147 million provided in 2021, which is directed towards research and farm advisory activities related to climate-smart and sustainable agriculture.

Examples of projects funded by the Department which will feed into knowledge and strategies to reduce farm carbon footprints include Farm-Carbon, which is exploring the contribution of on-farm hedgerows and non-forest woodland to carbon stocks in agricultural landscapes, or SmartGrass and SmartSward, which recently researched multispecies swards and also served to inform the recently announced multispecies sward measure as part of a support package to farmers worth €12 million.

The Senator also talked about having a go-to person or a one-stop shop. I will bring those views back to the Minister.