Fine Gael TD for Wicklow/East Carlow and Chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture Food and the Marine, Andrew Doyle, has highlighted the opportunity for Irish farming to benefit from the focus on sustainable agriculture which is set out in the Paris Agreement which has been agreed by 195 countries.
“The need to combat climate change is vital as we move forward, as is the need to ensure food security. So we are presented with a challenge of how to provide food for a rising global population while reducing the carbon impact of our food production methods.
“I believe that we already have the key elements in place to ensure that we proceed with becoming a world leader in sustainable food production. We already have a climate efficient agriculture, but we want to do much more and to ensure that we are and remain the most sustainable producer or milk, beef and other products in the world.
“Through the Beef Data and Genomics programme, the Green Low Carbon agri-environmental scheme and the carbon navigator/knowledge transfer programmes we are reducing the greenhouse gas intensity of our food production even further from its already existing efficient level.
“The Origin Green programme allows for unique farm level verification of our carbon footprint. This is being marketed internationally to buyers who are increasingly focused on the sustainability of the food they buy. We are also sequestering significant quantities of carbon though our forestry programme under which we plan to plant 44,000 hectares over the next five years.
“I welcome that the agreement includes a clear recognition of role of forests in mitigating climate change. The Irish Government has been emphasising at EU and UN levels for some years the need to account for both emissions and removals.
“In combatting climate change, we cannot threaten food production which is vital for our survival. It is to be welcomed that the Paris Agreement acknowledges the fundamental priority of safeguarding food security and ending hunger, and the particular vulnerabilities of food production systems to the adverse impacts of climate change. These aspects of the Paris Agreement are consistent with the European Council’s decision last year when the 28 EU Heads of State and Governments agreed to adopt sustainable intensification as EU policy on agriculture and climate change.”