The Climate Change Advisory Council has written a damming letter to Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and Minister Eamon Ryan, criticising their reaction to Ireland’s energy crisis.

This crisis further emphasises the urgency with which we need to reduce our reliance on imported fossil fuels, the council said in the letter.

The council believes that small-scale renewable energy infrastructure, such as solar, will be one of the solutions to achieving this. The council criticised the Government for the slow roll of the scheme and lack of planning regulation updates.

The council supports the Government’s current carbon tax plans, including the use of revenue raised for the continuation and enhancement of retrofit supports, welfare transfers to protect the most vulnerable households and investment in sustainable agriculture.

Agriculture

What’s notable however is the council’s lack of acknowledgement of the role that agriculture can play in increasing energy security through production of renewable energy.

Renewable technologies such as anaerobic digestion have the potential to decrease farm emissions while producing carbon neutral renewable gas.