An alternative way to measure the amount of methane emitted from agriculture is being reviewed in Ireland and some other parts of the world – which may impact the way green house gas emissions are reported, the director general of the IFA Damien McDonald has said.

Speaking at the IFA regional meeting in Athy on Monday 28 September, he said that he believed that there was a chance that the way in which emissions, in particular methane from farming, were measured could be changed in the future.

The question on emissions was raised from the floor by Adam Goodwin from Athy.

ADVERTISEMENT

He said the reported 40% figure of greenhouse gas emissions from farming was “basically saying that agriculture is 40% responsible for climate change” and “that’s massively enabling all of this destruction of agriculture”.

He further questioned why this figure could not be argued, as he didn't believe it himself, and suggested that the amount of air travel and shipping of imported food into the country also played a large part these emissions.

'Play the game'

McDonald responded by saying: “We have to play the game by the rules that are currently there by the international UNFCCC (the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) and how it's measured.

"But we are working hard behind the scenes at all stages to try and get those changed to what we feel is a more fair metric.”

At the moment, Global Warming Potential 100 (GWP100) is the accounting system used for greenhouse gas emissions, under the Paris Agreement.

It compares how much impact a gas like methane will have on atmospheric warming over 100 years, compared to carbon dioxide.

McDonald pointed out that methane is a short-lived gas that only lasts in the atmosphere for about 12 years.

“So after 12 years, it disappears and it's effectively replaced by the amount of methane that you emit this year.”

A different measurement called GWP* was designed to account for the varying lifetimes of gases, like methane, in the atmosphere, as it calculates the warming contributions of short-term and long-term gases at different rates.

McDonald said that GWP* could show a fairer view of Ireland’s methane emissions from agriculture, indicating that the metric could show that Ireland has lower methane emissions that currently thought.

However, GWP* has received mixed arguments among the scientific community over recent years, with some citing concerns that countries may use the metric to make their agricultural methane emissions appear smaller than they actually are, distracting from the need to reduce emissions.