Sectoral Emissions ceilings now must deliver maximum reduction ambitions, including Agriculture
In light of the Environmental Protection Agency today showing that Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions increased by almost 5% last year, People Before Profit TD and spokesperson on climate action, Bríd Smith, said that the government now must “massively increase reduction ambition and delivery” in its sectoral emissions ceiling targets which are due to be announced next week.
The TD said that the report from the EPA showed that Ireland is not only lagging far behind its targets for greenhouse gas reductions, but that the increases reported show that without radical action our emissions will continue to soar.
The TD said the emphasis is now on the Cabinet to agree the most ambitious sectoral emissions ceilings possible within the remainder of the current carbon budget, and that these targets have to seriously increase going forward.
She said: “These figures released by the EPA today are jaw dropping and exposes the government’s climate plans as nothing more that rhetoric and hot air.
“The situation is too urgent. No sector can have a get-out of jail free card, especially agriculture which must reach at least 30%. To do this we must reduce the herd in this country and reward farmers for that loss, supporting alternative and more sustainable farming methods. The model of meat production for export is not sustainable. Europe is burning and yet we have interest groups pushing hard for their sector to do the bare minimum in terms of reductions. No sector can get a free pass on this.”
