Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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269. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on a recent European Commission report which recommended reducing the Irish beef herd by 35% and the dairy herd by 5.5%, in order for Ireland to comply with European Union 2030 greenhouse gas emission targets; the effect this would have on the output and profitability of Irish farming; the position he will take at the 2015 United Nations Climate Conference in Paris, France; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14359/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The report referred to by the Deputy is a technical report published by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission on the 2nd February 2015. It provides an EU wide economic assessment of GHG mitigation policy options for EU agriculture by which a 19% and 28% reduction in GHG across EU agriculture might be achieved by 2030.

The report itself contains the following caveat: “It is important to stress that the project results have to be seen in the light of the specific assumptions made. For instance, different assumptions on the availability and uptake of technological mitigation options, and agricultural productivity growth inside and outside the EU could significantly alter the scenario results”.

The analysis confirms what Ireland has been saying in recent years to the Commission. If there are blunt emissions reduction targets for agriculture that do not take account of the limited cost-effective mitigation options, then reduced production and land abandonment is the major risk associated with compliance.

As a scientific study, the report reinforces the text of the October 2014 European Council Conclusions – (inter alia):"The multiple objectives of the agriculture and land use sector, with their lower mitigation potential, should be acknowledged, as well as the need to ensure coherence between the EU's food security and climate change objectives”.

Members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), including the EU and its Member States, have agreed to adopt a new global climate agreement in Paris in December 2015 which will take effect in 2020. Ireland continues to engage in intensive discussions with the European Commission to highlight the importance of ensuring a coherent EU approach to the twin challenges of food security (increasing global demand for food in the coming decades) with EU and indeed global climate change ambition. The wording on agriculture and land use in the European Council Conclusions of October 2014 are a welcome step in the right direction.

The development of the policy framework for climate and energy in the period from 2020 to 2030 is hugely important for the land use sectors across the European Union. In our view the policy framework must do three things:

- Encourage genuinely sustainable land management and forest product uses that contribute to climate change mitigation and retain and enhance soil and forest carbon stocks,

- Strongly promote sustainable intensification of food production to reduce the carbon intensity of food production and to contribute to both food security and greenhouse gas mitigation objectives, and

- Seek to move as far along the road to carbon neutrality as is possible in cost-effective terms, while not compromising our capacity for sustainable food production.

Officials in my Department are continuing to work with colleagues in other Departments to ensure a whole of Government approach to building upon the October European Council text and working with the Commission to ensure that EU and UN climate and food policies to 2030 and beyond recognise these global challenges.