Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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In January 2008, the European Commission published an impact assessment of the three key policy proposals for the implementation of a new, post Kyoto, climate change and renewable energy package. The assessment considered, inter alia, the impacts of a proposal relating to the sharing of efforts to meet the Community's independent greenhouse gas reduction commitment, in sectors not covered by the EU emissions trading system, including the agriculture sector. As part of the review of the EU Emissions Trading Directive, the Commission is currently conducting an analysis of sectors likely to be at significant risk of carbon leakage.

At a recent Agriculture Council the issue of climate change was included in the agenda at my request. While I emphasised that Ireland fully supports the goals agreed at the 2007 Spring European Council for a reduction in the EU's greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, I voiced my concerns about the challenge which the Commission's effort-sharing proposals posed for the agriculture and agri-food sectors in Ireland. I pointed out that if the 20% target set for Ireland's non-trading sector were to be applied pro rata to agriculture, it could not be achieved without considerable downward pressure on animal numbers, particularly in the suckler herd. At a time when world-wide demand for beef is growing, and alternative supplies come from regions where farming practices are much less sustainable in terms of climate change emissions and the environment generally, I do not believe that such an approach would be consistent with the fundamental objectives of global climate change strategy.

I am firmly of the view that reducing Ireland's agricultural production in order to meet greenhouse gas targets will not reduce global emissions. Ireland's pasture based agricultural production systems are very efficient in terms of the ratio of greenhouse gas per unit of food produced. Any fall in Irish beef and dairy output will probably be replaced, on the European and global markets, by food from countries where productions systems are far less sustainable and where the carbon footprint of that food is significantly higher than food produced in Ireland.

These issues have been examined extensively within my Department with the assistance of Teagasc. My officials have had direct discussions with the Commission at very senior level and I have raised the issue at meetings of the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Climate Change and Energy Security.