Irish agriculture can meet its 25% emissions reduction target for 2030 if all additional measures set out in the Climate Action Plan 2024 are taken into consideration, the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has said.

IFA environment chair John Murphy said other additional measures set out in the Climate Action Plan for agriculture were excluded from the emissions projections report.

“This is because additional data is required to account for a potential 1.5m tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent reduction due to planned diversification measures,” he said.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) climate report published on Tuesday shows that with additional measures as set out in the Climate Action Plan 2024, emissions from agriculture will reduce by 18%.

Resolved

Murphy added that hopefully this can be resolved by next year and “we will see these diversification measures included within the projections report and we will get a clearer picture of the potential of the sector”.

“Farmers are continually adopting new measures to reduce emissions on farms, but if targets are to be achieved, we need whole-of-sector implementation.

“Farmers need to be actively supported during this transition, particularly around diversification measures, if they are to be adopted at farm level.

“The rollout of initiatives such as feed additives, as well as ensuring sufficient supplies of protected urea, will be vital to the sector meeting these targets,” he said.