The first stage of the review that will help the Government set the emissions ceiling for the land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector will be published in September, the Department of the Environment has told the Irish Farmers Journal.

The emissions ceiling will have implications for farm forestry and for those farming on peat soils.

Farmer organisations appear to not have been asked for their opinions on the LULUCF review.

First phase

The first phase of the review assessed the available evidence on areas of LULUCF which included the impact of land use on the environment, how the impacts of land use can be measured and stakeholders in Ireland’s land use.

This stage was overseen jointly by the Department of the Environment and the Department of Agriculture.

Neither the Department of the Environment nor the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provided any details on the findings emerging from the review so far when queried by the Irish Farmers Journal.

Second phase

Measures and policies which can bring the land use sector in line with the Government’s wider climate objectives will be the focus of the second and final review stage.

This is expected to take a further 18 months to complete, after which the Government will set the LULUCF sectoral emissions ceiling.