The European Parliament and Council have agreed to increase the target for carbon sinks in the land use and forestry sector.

The new target of 310m tonnes of carbon to be sequestered across the EU by 2030 is a 15% increase on the previous target for the land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector.

Brussels has set Ireland’s LULUCF target to emit only 3.7mt more than it absorbs through land use and forestry by 2030.

Ireland, the Netherlands, Denmark and Malta are the only member states not given a LULUCF target to sequester more carbon than what is released.

All other member states have been prescribed a target beyond LULUCF carbon neutrality or to become ‘carbon sinks’.

It is not clear what data the European Commission has used to calculate the emissions coming from Irish LULUCF. Ireland is lagging way behind on accurate data on carbon sequestration figures specific to Irish soils, hedgerows, trees and forestry.

If Ireland was to continue this poor performance on creating carbon sinks, it could have to purchase carbon credits from over-achieving member states such as Sweden.

The Irish Government did not announce its own emissions reduction target for LULUCF when it set out the now legally-binding ceilings for other sectors earlier this year. The cabinet stalled to allow time for a €120,000 review into land use to be completed.

This review, chaired by the Departments of Agriculture and Environment, is expected to release a phase one report by the end of this year outlining proposals for curtailing Irish LULUCF emissions.