Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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132. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the extent to which the various programmes for carbon sequestration have advanced; the methods most commonly used; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27812/24]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Climate Action Plan 2024 makes reference to the potential role of carbon capture, utilisation and storage technologies in further reducing Ireland’s net greenhouse gas emissions. These technologies will play a significant role in future decarbonisation of the energy and industry sectors, in areas such as cement production. Many innovative carbon removal, transport and storage facilities and projects are already being proposed and developed in other EU Member States.

The Climate Action Plan also sets targets for reducing net emissions from Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry by increasing carbon sequestration into soils and biomass. Key policy measures include a targeted afforestation level of 8,000ha/year under the Forest Strategy 2023-30 and rehabilitation of State-owned peatlands under Bord na Móna’s Enhanced Decommissioning, Rehabilitation and Restoration Scheme.

At EU level, it is also recognised that carbon removals will play an increasingly important role in delivering net zero emissions. Provisional agreement was reached earlier this year on a Carbon Removals Certification Framework. This framework would create structures to certify and ensure the reliability of carbon removal credits for sale on the voluntary ‘offset’ market. It includes within its scope technological approaches such as direct air capture and geological storage, as well as removals into forestry, soils and harvested wood products, and more novel approaches such as biochar and enhanced rock weathering. Such a system will allow for a wide variety of business models to reward carbon removals by farmers, land managers, foresters and developers of industrial carbon capture facilities. The scheme is voluntary, and it is anticipated that it will be operational in stages from 2025.

A domestic carbon farming framework is also being developed by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, working in close collaboration with my Department. This framework will outline the direction of travel for carbon farming in Ireland.