Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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201. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the progress that has been made by the carbon farming working group on developing a system for calculating the amount of carbon sequestered on farmland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26934/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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My Department recognises the important role that land managers including our farmers and foresters will play in meeting our ambitious national climate change targets. The successful achievement of these targets will be influenced by the early adoption of innovations such as Carbon Farming.

The recent publication of the Commissions Communication on Sustainable Carbon Cycles has sent a clear signal to European Member States on the need to increase the ambition and participation of our land managers in the area or carbon removals and reductions.

The potential to reward farmers for their carbon sequestration activities is  recognised under the recently updated All-of-Government Climate Action Plan 2021 which commits government to, “explore the development of a carbon farming model”.

As a result, officials within the Department are currently exploring, primarily through the Carbon Farming Working Group, how an enabling framework for carbon farming can be developed and although this work is at an early stage the potential rewards for farmers, and society in general, are clear.

To help establish the required baseline data required for a carbon sequestration reward model, I have provided funding through my Department, for initiatives such as the establishment of the National Agricultural Soil Carbon Observatory, the Pilot Soil Sampling Programme and the Farm Environmental Scheme along with a number of European Innovation Partnership (EIP) research projects based on peatsoils, to provide the required data for the development of future policy options in this area.

My Department currently supports our farmers and foresters in their sequestration activities primarily through the Afforestation Programme including agroforestry, in a variety of configurations. An example of a positive development to date in this area is my Department’s ‘Woodland Environmental Fund’ where private businesses can part-fund the establishment of native woodlands on farms and from which a number of lessons may be learned for the future implementation of a Irish based Carbon Farming incentivisation scheme.