In the two years immediately after the NI Climate Change Act was passed by local politicians in 2022, there was a lot of effort put in by industry leaders to bring forward a new Sustainability body in NI and within that, a sub-group to drive forward carbon audits of farms.

But just a couple of years later, all momentum is lost and we now have a situation where the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) has said it is against DAERA plans to make carbon audits a condition to receive future farm payments.

Effectively the union have put the onus back onto others in the supply chain – if they want carbon audits done, they will need to articulate what information is required, how data will be used and what benefit it will deliver for farmers.

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In the meantime, the department has pressed ahead with an attempt to find a company to provide a carbon calculator to be used on all NI farms over a four-year period starting from 1 April 2026.

Messy situation

From the outside, it looks like an increasingly messy situation for DAERA. Without farmers onside, it is hard to see how a carbon footprinting project can move forward, yet on the other hand, civil servants are obliged to put in place policies that deliver on legislation passed by MLAs.

Specifically, the 2022 Act requires that sectoral plans for agriculture include “fully funded carbon audits of farms”.

That legislation was passed by all MLAs on 8 March 2022 and it remains a key driver for farm policies emanating from DAERA.

But from the day and hour the legislation was passed, it was obvious it would have to be changed or alternatively, just simply ignored. Our MLAs were well warned about the flaws in how farm emissions are measured – the fact many didn’t heed that warning won’t be easily forgotten. Unless a separate and realistic target is set for agriculture, it is hard to see farm carbon audits ever getting off the ground.