Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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239. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if funding has been allocated to complete a review of the Teagasc Marginal Abatement Cost Curve per action 3030 of the Climate Action Plan – Annex of Actions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13180/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Greenhouse Gas Marginal Abatement Cost Curve (GHG MACC) for Irish Agriculture quantifies the opportunities for abatement of agricultural greenhouse gases, as well as the associated costs/benefits and visualises the abatement potential of greenhouse gas mitigation measures, and the relative costs associated with each of these measures.

The last major revision of the GHG MACC was published by Teagasc in March 2019. 

A condition of the grant-in-aid provided by my Department to Teagasc for its Programme of Activities 2021 is a commitment that Teagasc provides my Department with an Exchequer-Costs-Inclusive version of the Marginal Abatement Cost Curve factoring in the Exchequer costs associated with each option.

In addition to the review of the existing Marginal Abatement Cost Curve, funding of €2,198,002 has been granted under the Department's 2021 Competitive Research Call to the project 'Land-Use, Agriculture and Bioenergy Measures for the Abatement of Climate Change (LAB MACC)'. 

This new project will build on the previous Marginal Abatement Cost Curve and quantify mitigation associated with a range of new measures that reduce nitrous oxide emissions, enhance carbon sinks via land-use and displace fossil fuel emissions via closed farm nutrient loops using enhanced production of bio-based products.