Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan maintains that those farming on drained peat soils could draw down €300m each year in private sector funding if carbon farming takes off.
Farmers could partially rewet their peaty lands but not flood them while allowing grazing to continue, Minister Ryan said at a National Economic and Social Council (NESC) event last week.
“We could save some 3m tonnes of carbon without affecting food production. It would just be raising the water table a little bit but still grazing.”
Head of carbon emissions in the European Commission Christian Holzleitner had previously told attendees that there is €100/t up for grabs for CO2 at the moment.
“That’s €300m a year to probably the poorer areas of farming, the areas of least incomes, if everyone trusts the monitoring management system and that’s not impossible in my mind,” the minister went on.
No date was given for when farmers could expect to sign up to any EU-wide carbon verification system, but Holzleitner did state that the European Commission would be expected to established funding streams post-2024.
Outdated data
The Green Party leader’s comments suggest that his €300m estimate is based off there being 300,000ha of drained, farmed peatlands in the country.
Teagasc recently published a paper which says that this figure is “grossly overestimated” and that only a third of these are actually drained.
This difference is of great significance for Ireland’s land use emissions, as it had been assumed that 6% of all national emissions came from these peatlands.
However, Minister Ryan warned that any correction to the national emissions reporting resulting from this new Teagasc information on grasslands could be fully undone by other research showing that the State’s forestry emits more than previously thought.
He said that the 5m tonnes of CO2 savings per year could be the same rise in emissions estimates that new findings suggest should be allocated to the forestry on peat soils.
“If it was that reduction, it would be equivalent to the actual increase in emissions that science told us only last year is coming from our forestry, our legacy issues around forestry,” Minister Ryan commented to the Irish Farmers Journal.
The minister also said that he has suggested to the European Commissioner that Ireland could become “a model, a pilot place to try and test” carbon farming.
His comments came at what was intended to be the launch of a National Economic and Social Council (NESC) report on ensuring a just transition for the farming sector.
Delays in the council’s report receiving Government approval meant that it remains unpublished.
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Emissions from drained peat grasslands 60% lower - Teagasc report
Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan maintains that those farming on drained peat soils could draw down €300m each year in private sector funding if carbon farming takes off.
Farmers could partially rewet their peaty lands but not flood them while allowing grazing to continue, Minister Ryan said at a National Economic and Social Council (NESC) event last week.
“We could save some 3m tonnes of carbon without affecting food production. It would just be raising the water table a little bit but still grazing.”
Head of carbon emissions in the European Commission Christian Holzleitner had previously told attendees that there is €100/t up for grabs for CO2 at the moment.
“That’s €300m a year to probably the poorer areas of farming, the areas of least incomes, if everyone trusts the monitoring management system and that’s not impossible in my mind,” the minister went on.
No date was given for when farmers could expect to sign up to any EU-wide carbon verification system, but Holzleitner did state that the European Commission would be expected to established funding streams post-2024.
Outdated data
The Green Party leader’s comments suggest that his €300m estimate is based off there being 300,000ha of drained, farmed peatlands in the country.
Teagasc recently published a paper which says that this figure is “grossly overestimated” and that only a third of these are actually drained.
This difference is of great significance for Ireland’s land use emissions, as it had been assumed that 6% of all national emissions came from these peatlands.
However, Minister Ryan warned that any correction to the national emissions reporting resulting from this new Teagasc information on grasslands could be fully undone by other research showing that the State’s forestry emits more than previously thought.
He said that the 5m tonnes of CO2 savings per year could be the same rise in emissions estimates that new findings suggest should be allocated to the forestry on peat soils.
“If it was that reduction, it would be equivalent to the actual increase in emissions that science told us only last year is coming from our forestry, our legacy issues around forestry,” Minister Ryan commented to the Irish Farmers Journal.
The minister also said that he has suggested to the European Commissioner that Ireland could become “a model, a pilot place to try and test” carbon farming.
His comments came at what was intended to be the launch of a National Economic and Social Council (NESC) report on ensuring a just transition for the farming sector.
Delays in the council’s report receiving Government approval meant that it remains unpublished.
Read more
Key farming and land use emissions policy report delayed
Environment committee rejects EU nature restoration law
MEPs in spotlight for Fitzmaurice nature restoration law meeting
Government should review communications after rewetting law 'fiasco'
Emissions from drained peat grasslands 60% lower - Teagasc report
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