Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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51. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will report on the input his Department had into Cabinet discussions on Ireland's role in and contribution to global climate change mitigation in advance of the Bonn climate change conference; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47044/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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My Department has been actively involved in the whole of Government approach to climate policy and in particular, with the Department of Communications, Climate Action and the Environment, which is the lead department in this area.

Ireland’s contribution to the global climate action plan, The Paris Agreement, is through the intended nationally determined contribution (INDC) tabled by the EU on behalf of its Member States, which commits to a reduction of 40% in EU-wide GHG emissions by 2030, compared with 1990. My Department actively participates in the EU Agriculture, Forests and Other Land Uses (AFOLU) team to promote and seek EU agreement on the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use approach to the treatment of the land sector in UN climate change negotiations.

The extent of the challenge to reduce GHG emissions is clearly understood by Government as set out in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act.  Officials from my Department are involved in a number of cross-departmental committees and technical analysis groups established to progress the national climate action agenda.

My Department and its agencies have been strongly focussed on improving the efficiency of Irish farming which is key to reducing emissions.  We are focussed on improving animal, grassland and nutrient management and have invested heavily in a number of schemes and measures such as the Origin Green initiative, the Beef Data and Genomics Programme and our Agri-Environment Scheme, GLAS.  Our knowledge transfer programmes are key to bringing the latest innovative sustainability research and practices direct to farmers. These strategies have led to a significant disaggregation of production output and emissions, with current analysis suggesting that the emissions intensity per kcal of food output in 2013 is reduced approximately 14% relative to 2005.

Officials from my Department are part of Irelands National delegation led by DCCAE and have also been engaging with the UNFCCC’s Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technical Advice (SBSTA) which is tasked with considering issues related to agriculture. We have engaged in a number of workshops which has seen a lot of good work happening at the technical level.

Development and promotion of locally appropriate technologies and practices based on sound science is crucial to ensure that food production is both resilient to climate change and makes best use of limited resources.