Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 481: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if forestry and bog land are used as calculators when determining the CO2 contribution of agriculture; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3257/08]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 482: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the tonnage of CO2 each agricultural sector absorbs by storing and by exchanging CO2; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3258/08]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 483: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the contribution of cereal crops, grassland, hedge rows and trees to the total CO2 produced by agriculture in tonnes; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3259/08]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 484: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the amount of CO2 produced by agriculture in tonnes; the amount each sector of agriculture contributes to this figure; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3260/08]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 481 to 484, inclusive, together.

The contribution of agriculture to Greenhouse Gas Emissions is recorded in the National Inventory System in accordance with reporting guidelines adopted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). According to the latest official figures from the EPA, the amount of CO2 equiv produced in 2006 by each sector of agriculture (as defined in the National Inventory) was as follows:

The absorption and exchange of CO2 due to land use is not recorded under the agriculture sector of the National Inventory. It is accounted for under Land Use Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF), which includes sequestration from forestry, and emissions from net land use changes such as putting grassland into cereals. Net sequestration by the Kyoto-eligible forests currently amounts to an average of 2.1 million tonnes of CO2 equiv per annum and land change from grassland to tillage amounts to approximately 2.5 tonnes of CO2 equiv per hectare per year depending on the soil type.

Emissions or sequestration of CO2 by hedgerows, grassland, and bogland are currently not accounted for in the Inventory System. Emissions associated with the use of fertiliser, whether used on grassland or tillage, are accounted for under Direct Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Synthetic Fertilisers and are counted under the Agricultural Soils category, but are not accounted for separately. There are further emissions from cereals under the heading of Crop Residues which amounts to approximately 130, 000 tonnes of CO2 equiv. per year. There is an additional emission associated with nitrogen lost through leaching and nitrogen lost through ammonia volatilisation. These emissions are not broken down between grassland and tillage crops in the inventory accounting system.