Climate action an opportunity to ‘remake agriculture’ – Taoiseach

Ireland needs to see more ambitious climate action as an opportunity to remake agriculture, An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

This would “give much better and secure incomes to our farmers for diversifying”, he said.

He also said Ireland could becoming a net exporter of energy.

“Instead of importing all that all that oil and gas, exporting our wind power to other parts of the world.

“So climate action can actually be a big economic success story for Ireland, we can have a recovery that’s green not brown.

“That means bringing rural Ireland, bringing farmers, bringing the business community with us.

“And actually the best chance of doing that is Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens, because we’re the parties that can do that.

We’re very keen to meet that 7% target.

“Whereas a left wing government, they’d be fighting with business and fighting with employers. They wouldn’t work,” he told the Late Late Show on Saturday night.

Reduction in emissions

An Taoiseach said he felt in the last day or two that maybe the Greens were coming towards the point where they would enter talks with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

“I really hope they do. You know I’m someone who believes and accepts that we need to be more ambitious when it comes to climate action.

“We’re very keen to meet that 7% target. We really want to sit down with them and work out how that can be done. But I think one thing that has emerged is that there are people, you know, a lot of our farmers, people in rural Ireland, who are you know a little bit worried about what climate action might mean for them and their livelihoods and their businesses.

“A lot of people in the business community too, who are worried about, you know, carbon taxes,” he said.

Read more

Government maths still a puzzle

Politician's views: Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil on the Greens and farm policy

All focus on Greens while farmers struggle in the red