Agriculture

Editorial: Government must act quickly on key issue of dairy farming emissions

The threat posed by the climate crisis means that Irish farmers will need to agree to a cut of close to 30 per cent in emissions

A new committee established by Charlie McConalogue, the Minister for Agriculture, has put forward a number of new proposals to help reduce emissions from Irish dairy farms, including an unprecedented ‘cap and trade’ system on methane levels and a multimillion-euro voluntary dairy retirement scheme. Picture: Rollingnews.ie

The coming months are set to be crucial ones for Irish farmers. Policy decisions are due to be made that will result in unprecedented structural changes to how they operate.

By the end of the summer, the government will have published legally binding carbon ceilings for every sector in a bid to slash the country’s emissions by 51 per cent by 2030.

For the farming sector, which accounts for over a third of Ireland’s total ...