Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Question 27: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the discussions which are taking place with a view to carbon reduction within the agricultural sector. [36227/09]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland is currently facing two greenhouse gas emission targets. The first of these is the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which limits Ireland's total national emissions to 13% above the baseline estimate in the Kyoto Period (2008 – 2012). Ireland's Agriculture sector will make a very significant contribution to achieving the Kyoto target with emissions from the sector projected to fall by 8.5% on 1990 levels by 2012.

The EU package on climate change and energy security agreed in December 2008 seeks to deliver a 20% reduction in total EU greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 (relative to 1990 levels), increasing to 30% in the event of an international agreement on global emissions reductions and at the same time to increase to 20% the share of renewable energy. As part of the package, the target for Ireland's non-trading sector emissions, including agriculture, is to reduce emissions by 2020, by an amount equal to a reduction of 20%, relative to 2005 levels. The EPA estimate that emissions from the agriculture sector will fall by over 9% by 2020 on 2005 levels. An in-depth analysis of potential emissions reduction measures for the agriculture sector suggest that further cost effective abatement is limited to 4% of emissions.

To assist the Government in identifying the most appropriate means of achieving Ireland's non-trading sector target, the cabinet committee on climate change and energy security is examining the emissions reduction potential of the non-trading sector and will report to Government on the optimum alternatives to achieve this goal.