What is the COP21 Climate Change conference in Paris, and what could happen at it?

Essentially, the countries of the world will meet to agree targets for emissions of greenhouse gases, in an attempt to curb global warming. The EU has already confirmed it will pledge to cut emissions by 40% by 2030 compared with the base year of 1990. The dominance of agriculture in the Irish economy means achieving a 40% reduction. This will place a burden on our sector.

The European Commission understand this unique Irish predicament, according to Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney.

“The Climate Change Commissioner, Miguel Canate, is a former minister for agriculture in Spain. He has a good understanding of both climate change and food production.” The Agriculture Commissioner is former Irish Environment Minister Phil Hogan, Coveney continued, a strong proponent of the need to maintain food production while combating climate change.

Coveney does not underestimate the scale of the challenge in gaining a workable outcome. “Ireland is a total outlier – we are the obvious country that needs to give leadership on this issue,” he said. That’s why we made it clear when setting targets we need to reflect the full picture of agriculture and land use, which he described as “the most challenging area” for climate change.

To that end, Coveney highlighted the massive investment in GLAS, and in Knowledge Transfer, which encourages more efficient farming, reducing the carbon footprint of our food. He also cited the benefits of the Beef Data and Genomics Scheme, which can make our beef herd more efficient through a targeted multi-trait breeding programme. “The good news for farmers is if they get better [at reducing the carbon footprint of their output through efficiencies], they will be more profitable as well.”

Coveney said there is the possibility of a game-changing breakthrough for cattle, talking of research in New Zealand that is reporting a dramatic reduction in methane when cows were fed a certain feed additive. “Feed conversion efficiency is the key,” he said.