Stormont needs to up the pace on net zero – CCC

Experts from the UK Climate Change Committee (CCC) have told the Stormont Executive that the pace of greenhouse gas emissions reduction needs to increase significantly in NI, if NI’s 2050 net zero climate target is to be met.

Presenting their fourth carbon budget, which covers the five-year period from 2038 to 2042, the CCC points out that emissions in 2040 need to be 77% lower than 1990 levels. In 2022, those emissions were down 26% when compared to 1990.

Most of that reduction is due to the phase-out of coal to produce electricity.

“Action will need to broaden to other sectors,” notes the CCC report.

That action includes a massive shift to electric cars and vans by 2040, as well as oil-fired boilers in most homes being replaced by heat pumps.

It also requires “some form of engineered removals” potentially in the form of Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage (DACCS). “The NI Executive should ensure that the conditions are in place to attract DACCS operators to establish operations in NI,” states the CCC report.

However, with agriculture the highest emitting sector in NI, much of the CCC attention is inevitably put on how emissions can be reduced from farming and land use in NI.

Among the measures identified is the use of feed additives to cut methane emissions from ruminants.

The CCC also estimate that cattle and sheep numbers in NI need to fall by 31% by 2040. That reduction would be partly in response to efforts by government to encourage people to consume 25% less meat and 20% less dairy, and instead eat more plant-based foods and alternative proteins.

Also taking livestock numbers down is land-use change. The CCC advice is that there needs to be a massive uptake in re-wetting and restoration of peatland in NI. Currently, there is over 200,000ha of degraded peatland, with 63% of this to be restored by 2040.

In addition, woodland cover in NI needs to rise from its current 8% to 12% by 2040. At present, around 400ha is planted in NI each year. This needs to rise to around 2,800ha annually by 2036.

To achieve all these targets will require “long-term certainty on public funding for farming practices and technologies which reduce emissions,” notes the CCC report.