The Tanaiste has said that he has seen the innovations that are possible in farming and believes that Ireland can get to a point where food production levels can be maintained at the same time that farm incomes are increased and carbon emissions reduced.
In an interview with the Tonight Show on Virgin Media One, Leo Varadkar insisted that this was “achievable”.
“I think given the cost of fertiliser at the moment we are going to see less use of fertiliser this year. And that is why I think we will see agricultural emissions fall next year even though they went up this year. They will fall for a number of reasons,” he said.
“We need to work with farmers. I went to visit model farms. I have see the innovations that are possible. It does mean using different types of fertiliser. It means using low emission systems. There are things that can be done. And that is what we want to achieve.
“Encourage farmers, incentivise them financially to move to things like organic farming, which is less intensive but can be profitable. And also areas like renewable energy, areas like carbon farming, areas like anaerobic digestion... but we have to put the money behind it.
“Ultimately for anyone who runs a household or a business it is about the bottom line; bout whether you can make ends meet.”
He said it was important not to “over obsess” on the precise figures being discussed in relation to reducing carbon emissions.
“When you see how emissions are calculated there is a lot of margin of error even in how they are calculated at the moment. I think we shouldn’t try to obsess too much on a precise figure.
“What we need to figure out is how to actually achieve this. We need targets that are ambitious because we need to be ambitious about climate action but they also need to be achievable. There is little point in having a figure that you really don’t know how to achieve.
“I am sure we will have agreement on it (the figures) and I am absolutely of the view that we are all on the same side here in the three parties of the Government.
“We may be able to sign off on a set of figures for all sectors on Wednesday. It might be September. It is not going to make an enormous difference in the greater scheme of things whether its Wednesday or five weeks time. It is more important that we get it right.”
Mr Varadkar added that “people are getting too hung up on a particular magic figure”.
“It is more about how we get there and how we achieve what we want to achieve which is protecting farm incomes, protecting the rural economy and getting our emissions down.”