The Government has been called on to clarify the reference to biogenic methane in the climate bill by IFA president Tim Cullinan.

Cullinan was speaking following a meeting with Minister for the Environment and Climate Eamon Ryan on the climate bill this week.

The IFA said the bill states that the Climate Change Advisory Council shall take into account ‘the distinct characteristics of biogenic methane’. “Yet, it is unclear what this means,” it said.

Cullinan said: “The minister and the Government need to come out now, before this bill is passed, and clarify what exactly they intend by this reference. This is also a commitment in the programme for government.”

Carbon budgets

The definition of carbon budget refers only to emissions; it does not refer to removals, the IFA president said.

“This must be changed to bring it into line with the overall climate objective, which the bill states is to achieve a climate-neutral economy when ‘emissions are balanced or exceeded by the removal of greenhouse gases’,” he said.

Carbon leakage

IFA environment chair Paul O’Brien said the bill also requires the Government to consider the risk of “substantial or unreasonable carbon leakage”.

It defines carbon leakage as “the transfer, due to climate policies, of production to other countries with less restrictive policies with regard to greenhouse gas emissions”.

O’Brien said that the IFA pointed out to the minister that any risk of carbon leakage should be factored into decisions.

“It is a complete nonsense for Irish climate policy to lead to an increase in global emissions, which is what will occur if there is any carbon leakage. There is no such thing as ‘reasonable carbon leakage’,” he said.

The IFA said that the emissions reduction target for agriculture must remain in line with the roadmap for the sector that sets a pathway to reduce emissions by 10% to 15% by 2030.