Agriculture and Forestry Sector Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Seminar WELCOME D E PA R T M E N T O F A G R I C U LT U R E , F O O D AND THE MARINE 1 5 T H M AY 2 0 1 5 WELCOME Emergency exits Mobile phones Please identify yourself and your organisation when asking a question.
Timetable 9.30: Introduction. 9.35: DAFM Agriculture Presentation John Muldowney 10.00: DAFM Forest Service Eugene Hendrick 10.20: EPA Bernard Hyde 10.40: Bord Bia Padraig Brennan 11.00: Teagasc Rogier Schulte 11.20: Coffee 11.35: Q&A 13.00: Ends Need for a Mitigation Plan for Agriculture, Land use and Food production
JOHN MULDOWNEY D E PA R T M E N T O F A G R I C U LT U R E , F O O D AND THE MARINE M AY 2 0 1 5 Presentation Overview Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015 Agriculture Sector and the Challenge Abatement potential from Agriculture Policy vision Submissions received National Climate Change Adaptation
Framework to specify national strategy for application of adaptation measures in different sectors. Sectoral Adaptation Plan to specify the policy measures required to enable the sectors to adapt to the effects of climate change. National Expert Advisory Council on Climate Change
to provide advice and recommendations to Ministers and Government in the preparation of the above. Membership includes EPA, Teagasc, SEAI, ESRI. to specify policy measures and sectoral mitigation measures. Todays seminar feeds into this process, using the discussion document as a starting point. (or National Mitigation Plan) National Low Carbon Transition and Mitigation Plans
Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015 Agriculture Sector and the Challenge Irish Agriculture and Land use Agricultural Land 4.2m ha Grassland: 3.8m ha (90%) mainly permanent pasture Crops: 0.42m ha (10%) Forestry 0.75m ha
Livestock 6.7m Cattle 5.1m sheep 1.5m pigs Agri-food in the economy 7.7% GVA 7.9% employment (including 140,000 family farms)
11% of exports 2012 emissions share (EPA, Dec 2014) IE total GHG emissions were 58.5 MtCO2e Agriculture accounted for 18.7MtCO2e (or 31.9%) of Total emissions Agriculture is treated as part of the NETS (non-emissions trading sector) In 2012, agriculture accounted for c.44.9% of NETS emissions Teagasc Marginal Abatement Cost Curve (MACC) Measures
CAP Pillar I SMRs and GAEC Greening Crop diversification Ecological focus area Maintaining permanent pasture CAP Pillar II GLAS (GLAS+) BDGP Knowledge transfer
Farm investments schemes Organic farming scheme Others Origin Green Farm advisory Horticulture sector Research (SHARP)
Carbon benefits of selected GLAS actions Action Target Est. Sequestration t carbon/year Potential tonnes/year New hedgerow
1.4 million metres 0.1 1400 Cover crops 90,000ha 0.16 14,400 Min till
30,000ha 0.1 3,000 Aertsens, Nocker & Gobin 2013, Valuing the C sequestration potential for European Agriculture Source : GRA/SAI Agricultural Emissions Scenarios Frozen Frozen scenario: scenario:
C-footprint C-footprint frozen frozen at at 2005 2005 value value (hypothetical) (hypothetical) Food Food Harvest Harvest 2020 2020 reference reference scenario
scenario (most (most likely) likely) Historic Historic data data With With Additional Additional Measures Measures Scenario Scenario (maximum (maximum
biophysically biophysically available available mitigation) mitigation) Policy vision Policy framework must do three things: Promote sustainable intensification of food production to reduce the carbon intensity of food production and to contribute to both food security and greenhouse gas mitigation objectives;
Encourage sustainable land management and forest product uses that contribute to climate change mitigation and retain and enhance soil and forest carbon stocks; Seek to move as far along the road to carbon neutrality as is possible in cost-effective terms, while not compromising our capacity Summary of Submissions 16 respondents to the GHG Mitigation Discussion Document. Some general comments about overall thrust of document and some more specific concerns about metrics used, etc. Most frequently cited issues:
Food Harvest 2020 targets are not compatible with GHG reduction. (8) Need to increase afforestation targets/rates. (7) Ireland has legally binding reduction targets: need to focus on overall reduction in GHG. (6) Need more training and knowledge transfer to increase carbon awareness among farmers and agri industry. (6) Most frequently cited issues: Need incentives to encourage behavioural
change, afforestation, etc. (6) Must have acknowledgement of carbon sink potential of forests, grassland, soil, orchards, aquaculture and bioenergy and have these count towards CC targets. (6) Ambition to increase beef & dairy production is being conflated with food security. (4) Polluter pays principle should apply to agri emissions. (4) Thank you