The Department of Agriculture is making moves to be ahead of the curve to pay farmers for storing carbon and reducing emissions.
A public consultation on carbon farming framework is currently open and the Department is accepting views on the initiative until 3 November.
The key areas that this framework will seek to clarify include:
Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue stated that carbon farming can reward farmers for the carbon removed from the atmosphere and stored in “soils, forests, grasslands, croplands and hedgerows”.
Key enabler
“From a national perspective, carbon farming can be a key enabler to assist the sector in meeting Ireland's climate targets as set out in its most recent Climate Action Plan (2023).
“It is now timely to access ideas and insights from the public relating to the creation of a carbon farming framework that will support and reward farmers/landowners to meet national climate objectives.
“A credible framework is a necessary first step to support our farmers/land managers in the areas of carbon removal, emission reductions, and ecosystem services.”
A stakeholder group is being established alongside the public consultation to oversee the development of this framework on carbon farming.
Research and pilot projects already funded by the State will feed into establishing the baselines which will determine how much a farmer can be paid, according to Minister of State Martin Heydon.
Supporting initiatives
“We have been developing and supporting initiatives to gather national baseline data for a range of activities,” the minister commented.
“This will be key to developing a carbon sequestration reward model. To date we have provided for the establishment of the National Agricultural Soil Carbon Observatory and the pilot soil sampling programme, along with a range of research projects on peat soils.”
Staying ahead of the curve
At last week’s National Ploughing Championships in Ratheniska, John Mounsey of the Department told farmers at an ‘AIB shed talk’ that Ireland’s aim is to be a leader on carbon farming.
“We are developing a carbon farming framework at the moment and we actually want to be ahead of the European regulations on that side,” he said.
A guide to carbon farming published by the Department identifies many schemes that farmers are already participating in as “of relevance” to carbon farming initiatives.
These range from Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) to Agri-Climate Rural Environmental Scheme (ACRES) and Bord Bia’s producer quality assurance schemes.
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