Coalition party leaders and Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue are due to meet on Monday in an attempt to break the deadlock on the scale of the carbon emissions cut to be sought from the agriculture sector. Before the meeting, senior sources indicated that a reduction of 24–25 per cent by 2030 could be a possible compromise.
Discussions between Ministers and officials over the past week have failed to yield agreement on the point between 22 and 30 per cent, at which emissions of greenhouse gases from the agriculture sector will be expected to be reduced by before the end of the decade.
This has delayed the announcement of a Government-wide plan for emission-reduction ceilings to be sought from various sectors.
Coalition sources said they would try to reach agreement on Monday at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Climate Change, which is likely to be attended by the Taoiseach, Tánaiste, Green Party leader and Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan, Minister for Public Expenditure Michael McGrath and Mr McConalogue and his senior officials.
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Mr Ryan and his party are pushing for a larger cut, closer to 28 per cent, while Mr McConalogue, conscious of strong opposition among farmers as well as Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil backbenchers, favours a cut closer to the lower limit.
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Reports in Sunday newspapers suggested widely differing versions of what was being demanded, with Government sources from the different sides of the debate accusing each other of leaking in order to influence the final agreement.
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are anxious not to alienate farmers by agreeing a figure too far away from the 22 per cent, which farming organisations have accepted.
However, Mr Ryan is under pressure from his party and climate and environmental activists to secure significant reductions from agriculture, the sector that is Ireland’s largest source of greenhouse gases.
Securing a path to reduce Ireland’s carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2030, and setting the process down in law, is central to the Green Party’s rationale for being in Government. Some climate experts have warned that if the agriculture target is set too low, the reductions expected in other sectors will be so high as to be unattainable.
Monday’s meeting will be followed by the final Cabinet meeting before the August break on Wednesday. If a deal cannot be agreed in the coming days, the issue will be kicked forward to September, further delaying the process of implementing the sectoral emissions ceilings.
The Government plan will set ceilings for each sector which Ministers will then be responsible for delivering. The target for the transport sector is likely to be set at a 50 per cent reduction, while electricity generation is expected to reduce its emissions by 70–80 per cent, mostly driven by a switch to renewable energy.
Senior Government figures have again sought to focus on the position of Sinn Féin, the main Opposition party, which has declined to say what level of an agriculture emissions reduction it favours.
Sinn Féin has said it agrees with the target of a 50 per cent reduction by 2030, but has opposed individual climate measures such as a carbon tax. The party’s finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said on Sunday that targets had to be “achievable” and again declined to say what his party believed the agriculture number should be. He said that the party did not have sufficient information on which to base a decision.
