“Farmers will be the climate heroes of the future,” according to Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan, who has said there is a “false narrative” regarding the Green Party’s views on agriculture.
The Greens have come in for regular criticism from the farming lobby, rural groups and politicians for its climate action policies since entering Government three years ago, which Mr Ryan believes to be unfair.
“It doesn’t serve farmers or the environmental community. It’s not correct and it has to stop,” he said of this narrative on Friday during a conference organised by the National Economic and Social Council (NESC), which coincided with the publication of a report on Just Transition in Agriculture and Land Use.
A just transition involves maximising the social and economic opportunities of climate action while minimising and carefully managing any challenges that adapting to it brings about. The study explored opportunities for diversifying incomes, supports for rural regeneration and innovative sources of finance for farmers.
“A just transition in this sector is not a transition out of agriculture but a transition into making optimal use of our land and agricultural resources for environmental, economic and social sustainability,” said Niamh Garvey, NESC’s senior policy analyst and lead author of the report.
Recommendations from the report, which will be released in full once approved by Cabinet in the next week or so, include scaled-up farm advisory services more aligned with the environment, better accounting for the “invisible” services provided by nature, and a results-based payments for farmers who leave space for nature on their land.
Most speakers at the conference agreed that farmers will have to be paid for protecting nature on their land. However, there was some disagreement whether this money should come from national or European funds such as the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) or corporate schemes for carbon offsetting among food processors.
“The risks to production are the biggest barriers for farmers. Farmers need to be assured that their livelihoods aren’t threatened and that short-term payments for ecosystem services won’t be eroded in the longer term,” said Geraldine O’Sullivan from the Irish Farmers Association’s forestry committee.
Tom McDonald, from the Nevin Economic Research Institute, said that while new jobs would be created in sustainable forestry, renewable energy, organic farming, horticulture and the circular economy, there would be vulnerable older workers who were less able to adapt. “There will have to be grants, loans and income supports for these workers,” he said.
Douglas McMillan, project manager of the Farm Carbon project, spoke about how 23 farmers were working to raise the water table on peaty grasslands to reduce carbon emissions. “If we consider there is 350,000 peaty grasslands in Ireland with an average depth of 60cm. The water table could be raised to 40cm without reducing food production which would account for 5 per cent of Ireland’s current greenhouse gas emissions.”
Mr Ryan said that once the current review of land use in Ireland was completed, the Government’s Climate Action Plan would have to be updated to include emissions from land use. “The new forestry programme is a key part of the land review, and we will have to reallocate emissions to land use from other sectors for the 2024 Climate Action Plan.”
Christian Holzleitner, head of the unit for land economy at the European Commission’s directorate for climate action, said the commission was currently working on a certification scheme for carbon removals for land owners with a view to progressing payments for so-called carbon farming.
