Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 91: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the steps his Department is taking to combat climate change; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43984/08]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The agricultural sector is already making a significant contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The Kyoto Protocol allowed Ireland to increase emissions to a level 13% above 1990 levels by 2012. In its latest analysis, published in September 2008, the Environment Protection Agency projects that emissions from the agriculture sector in that period will actually fall to 18.95 million tonnes or 4.3% below 1990 levels. The EPA's most recent calculation of historic sectoral emissions shows that emissions from agricultural sources decreased by 3.8% in 2007 compared to the previous year, continuing an almost uninterrupted downward trend since 1998.

The continued implementation of the Nitrates Regulations is having and will continue to have an impact, as it results in better use of nutrients with consequently less nitrogen applications and therefore less nitrous oxide emissions. Measures under the Rural Environment Protection Scheme are expected to raise awareness amongst farmers of the need to address climate change and also to promote greater acceptance and uptake of technologies that contribute to greenhouse gas abatement, such as use of minimum tillage and the adoption of low emission trailing shoe technology for slurry spreading.

In terms of reduced fertiliser use and consequent emissions, organic farming will also have a role to play and is supported through my Department's Organic Farming Scheme.

In meeting emissions reduction targets set under the Kyoto protocol, carbon dioxide sequestered from the atmosphere, by forestry planted since 1990, is very important to Ireland. Forestry is also a valuable source of renewable energy, displacing emissions from fossil fuels. My Department continues to promote planting under the Afforestation Grant Scheme. I believe that offset of domestic forestry sequestration must be allowed as a means of achieving any greenhouse gas emissions targets set for the post Kyoto period.

Energy crops can play a role in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. To encourage cultivation, my Department introduced a National Energy Crop Premium of €80 per hectare in 2007 to supplement the EU Premium of €45 per hectare. A new Bioenergy Scheme was also launched offering establishment grants worth €1,450 per hectare to plant willow and miscanthus. Land planted with energy crops can also benefit under the Single Payment Scheme as well as REPS and the Disadvantaged Areas Scheme, subject to some restrictions on the areas planted.

My Department continues to examine various abatement options in close liaison with Teagasc. There has been a significant commitment of €15.5 million to climate change research projects since 2005 under the Research Stimulus Fund operated by my Department. This includes research into areas such as increasing efficiencies, improved slurry application, increased use of clover, which would reduce nitrogen usage, non-inversion tillage and increasing the length of grazing season.

However, achieving the EU's post-Kyoto target of a 20% reduction on 2005 emissions levels by 2020 poses very significant challenges for Ireland, and in particular for the Irish agriculture sector. If the target were to be applied pro rata to agriculture it could not be achieved without considerable downward pressure on animal numbers, particularly in the suckler herd. At a time when world-wide demand for beef is growing, and alternative supplies come from regions where farming practices are much less sustainable in terms of climate change emissions and the environment generally, I do not believe that such an approach would be consistent with the fundamental objectives of the global climate change strategy. I made my views known at the September meeting of the EU Agriculture Council.