PRESS RELEASE — OCTOBER 2024

An Taisce Climate Committee Statement on the Climate Change Advisory Council’s Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use Review, Sept 2024

Real change: Finding the courage to follow the science on Agricultural emission reductions

An Taisce Climate Committee (ATCC) strongly supports the role of the Climate Change Advisory Committee (CCAC) as an independent assessor and advisor to Government policy.

It also agrees with CCAC that, “Government needs to urgently support and incentivise the rapid uptake of cost-effective farming measures to reduce agricultural emissions”.

An Taisce Climate Committee firmly believes that for the Climate Change Advisory Council to be effective, it should be able to strengthen its independent expertise and impact to transparently incorporate appropriate independent, international, expertise, in all future assessments and recommendations concerning the Irish agriculture and land use sectors.

On reviewing the recommendations in the Council’s recent publication of the Annual Review 2024: Agriculture and Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry [1]. there are some serious omissions that this statement would like to highlight.

As would be expected, the Review should document where we are now, acknowledge the policy failures that have led us to this position, and recommend resolutions. Importantly, it should call out the vested interests profiting from farming and should also identify where farming and our food system have become more vulnerable to market and climate impacts. It should chart alternative agro-ecological pathways to a more secure future.

It is our conclusion, that instead this Review avoids the difficult tasks ahead. It  reproduces the lessor climate action recommendations produced by Teagasc. This has already resulted in total agriculture emissions having risen by 10 per cent since 2010 and methane emissions specifically by 16 per cent [2].

The Council hasn’t appeared to assess the admission by Teagasc, in its 2023 “Marginal Abatement Cost Curve” report, that its recommended efficiency measures to reduce dairy greenhouse gas emissions over the period 2012-20 had in fact resulted in a 12 per cent increases in emissions over the same period [3, p36]      

There is no mention of the Nitrates Directive derogation. Does the Council recommend seeking renewal or not?           

There is no advice concerning Ireland’s domestic action as part of its commitment to the agreement to reduce global methane emissions by 30% by 2030 [4]     

There is no statement concerning dietary change demonstrating a clear Council recommendation to encourage a reduction in meat consumption in accordance with continuing availability of strong data to support this action.      

We note that this Review also does not reflect on the CCAC’s own past advice in relation to the agricultural sector. In its 2019 Annual Review [5], following the findings of a specially commissioned study, the CCAC presented scenarios recommending no increase in dairy cow numbers from 1.425 million. However, EPA data for 2022 records 1.57 million dairy cows. Teagasc modelling underlying EPA GHG projections now appears to envisage dairy cow numbers rising to 1.75 million by the early 2030s.

It would be instructive to understand what advice the Council is giving to Government on this matter

In 2020, an independent evaluation of the operation of the Climate Change Advisory Council was commissioned by the Council itself [6]. It rightly praised the Council’s role in a “maturing of the sensitive debate on the role of agriculture and land use in Ireland’s mitigation effort, including regarding the treatment of methane and the need to reduce livestock numbers”. It also concluded that it was “now time for the Council to step into a more proactive agenda setting role on the national transition objective”.

However, it went on to warn that the continued inclusion of Teagasc as an automatic ex officio member of the Council would be problematic because it would effectively mean Teagasc reviewing its own work.

More pointedly, it also observed that “Teagasc is additionally regarded as representing a sectoral interest in the [climate action] transition”. Four years later these warnings have been ignored and it appears that this is having a potentially negative impact on the review process.

Throughout the recently published Review, there is little current evidence that the CCAC has adopted an independent approach from Teagasc.

Expert assessment requires that the full range of relevant research, including critical views and alternative future pathways, must be examined and fairly reported. This Review shows little evidence that this has occurred.

This Review does not appear to serve a majority of farmers. It neglects to assess alternatives to the continuing dominance of the beef and dairy sector. As a net food energy importer, Ireland’s future food security and the resilience of farming critically depends on giving urgent attention to such alternative futures.

 Terri Morrissey, Chair of An Taisce’s Climate Committee, comments:

“The Climate Change Advisory Council is an independent agency with the ability to review climate policy and, on that basis, gives recommendations and advice. If this independence is compromised, or even just perceived to be compromised, it undermines the effectiveness of the Council’s work. We urge The Council to acknowledge this risk, and take appropriate measures to address it.”

[1] CCAC. Annual Review 2024: Agriculture and Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry. https://tinyurl.com/CCAC-IE-AFOLU24

[2] EPA. Ireland's Provisional Greenhouse Gas Emissions 1990-2023. https://tinyurl.com/EPA-IE-GHG-Prj-2023

[3] Teagasc. Marginal Abatement Cost Curve 2023. https://tinyurl.com/teagasc-MACC-2023

[4]  Molly Killeen, Euractiv. Nov 2021. Ireland joins Global Methane Pledge signatories. https://tinyurl.com/IE-Global-CH4-Pledge

[5] CCAC. Annual Review 2019. https://tinyurl.com/CCAC-IE-AR2019

[6] Geraldine Tallon, Sharon Turner and Halldór Thorgeirsson. Independent Evaluation of the Climate Change Advisory Council. 2020. https://tinyurl.com/CCAC-IE-IndEval2020

ENDS