Farmers say ‘impossible’ emission reduction targets will devastate sector

Farmers have said it will be “impossible” to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent over the next eight years.

Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) president Tim Cullinan said the target, agreed on Thursday by the Coalition, “is all about the survival of the Government rather than survival of rural Ireland”.

“This is a potentially devastating blow for Irish farming and the rural economy,” he said. “The Government has agreed to a target without any pathway to get there or any budget to assist farmers to reduce emissions. They have no idea of the economic and social impact of today’s decision on the farming sector or rural Ireland.

“Farmers across the country will be rightly worried about what this means for their future. I want to make it clear that any attempt to undermine farmers’ livelihoods or the viability of [the] sector, in order to achieve these targets, will be opposed vigorously.”

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[ Farmers to be asked to reduce emissions by 25%, as Coalition leaders reach deal ]

Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association president Pat McCormack described the deal as a “sell-out” and said it would have “wholly negative and predictable economic, social and demographic consequences for the massive areas of the State that depended on farming”.

Mr McCormack said the Government “cheerfully signed off on policy that, at a stroke, made whole classes of farms unviable”. The 25 per cent reduction target moved policy “from difficult to impossible”, he said.

Friends of the Earth chief executive Oisín Coghlan said the 25 per cent reduction target was “lower than we need from agriculture”. He said it would make other sectors’ emission cuts “even more challenging as they’ll now have to pick up the slack”.

“On the other hand, 25 per cent is not what the agri-lobbyists wanted either,” he said. “The last few weeks have shown that the IFA don’t have a veto on Irish climate policy like they used to.”

Chambers Ireland head of policy Shane Conneely said the Government had “blinked” in terms of the target for agriculture.

“We welcome some parts [of] the agreement, but not how we got here,” he said. “There has been too much uncertainty for the wider economy and society, and compromise has now been built into process.

“In practical terms, farming accounts for 1 per cent of our national income, even in regional areas its job creation effect is marginal. Farming is, however, an outsized part of our CO2 emissions, with farming making up more than a third of our national output.

“The reason why farming is such an important part of this conversation is that Ireland is one of the highest CO2 emitting countries, per capita, in the world, because of farming. Even small reductions in targets for farmers mean an enormous amount of effort for the rest of the people on the island.”

The Ibec group Dairy Industry Ireland said it was “vital” that the Government “quickly delivers clarity on accounting mechanisms”.

“Allied with that, Government must move quickly and put in place the mechanisms to help Irish agriculture realise its ambition of balancing environmental targets while protecting the economic viability of the sector, fundamental tenets of the new Climate Bill,” it said.