Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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211. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if there are any proposals or plans in place regarding carbon credits valuation certificates for farmers and herd number owners; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10430/23]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The recent European Commission proposal for a regulation on certifying carbon removals 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.

A key element to future efforts required for a carbon sequestration reward model will be the establishment of national baseline data for a range of activities.

To this end and taking a proactive approach, I have provided core funding for a number of relevant 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.

These national research and demonstration activities will have key learnings for future policy in this area while also leading to a refinement of data to the National Inventory Reporting framework for greenhouse gas emissions.

The current Woodland Environment Fund administered through my Department, as part of the national Afforestation Programme, provides us with an pre-existing model for targeted payments to land managers for their positive environmental activities which will be of significant benefit to the future roll-out of a dedicated carbon farming incentive to the Irish Market.

It is important to note that many challenges and uncertainty still remains around carbon farming including baseline data, quantification and verification of emission reductions as well as certification processes and my Department continues to work in this area.