Transcript Agriculture, Food and GHGs - Department of Agriculture

Agriculture and Forestry
Sector Greenhouse Gas
Mitigation Seminar
WELCOME
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FOOD
AND THE MARINE
1 5 TH M A Y 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
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FOOD
AND THE MARINE
MAY 2015
Presentation Overview
• Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill
2015
• Agriculture Sector and the Challenge
• Abatement potential from Agriculture
• Policy vision
• Submissions received
Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill
2015
National Low Carbon
Transition and
Mitigation Plans (or
National Mitigation Plan)
• to specify policy measures and sectoral mitigation
measures. Today’s seminar feeds into this process,
using the discussion document as a starting point.
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.
Agriculture Sector
and the Challenge
Irish Agriculture and Land use
 Agricultural Land – 4.2m ha
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Grassland: 3.8m ha (90%) – mainly permanent pasture
Crops: 0.42m ha (10%)
 Forestry – 0.75m ha
 Livestock
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6.7m Cattle
5.1m sheep
1.5m pigs
 Agri-food in the economy
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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
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SMRs and GAEC
Greening
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Crop diversification
Ecological focus area
Maintaining permanent
pasture
 CAP Pillar II
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GLAS (GLAS+)
BDGP
Knowledge transfer
Farm investments
schemes
Organic farming scheme
 Others
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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 scenario’:
C-footprint frozen at
2005 value
(hypothetical)
Food Harvest 2020
reference scenario
(most likely)
Historic data
‘With Additional
Measures’ Scenario
(maximum
biophysically
available 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 for sustainable food
production.
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