IFA president John Bryan has described the recent climate talks in Durban as an ‘opportunity missed’ to recognise the important carbon sinks associated with grassland and forestry, and to address the dual challenges of increasing global demand for food while reducing international greenhouse gas emissions.
He said: “The climate talks in Durban delivered a deal of sorts, but all that was decided was an agreement would be reached at a later date. However, the issues of most importance to agriculture were completely ignored.
“Within the next 20 years demand for food is projected to increase by 50 per cent. There is an obligation on policy makers to support emission efficient regions such as Ireland and ensure that food production takes place in sustainable regions. While the issue of food security was discussed on the fringes of the Durban conference there was no real recognition of the importance of ensuring that food production is not hindered by any future climate change plan.
“The outcome of the climate talks in Durban does not provide any basis for Europe to move beyond its emission reduction pledge of 20 per cent by 2020. The effort sharing agreement between Member States may need to be reviewed as the emission reduction demands on sectors such as agriculture in Ireland are so great that they may impact negatively on the sector. The agri-food sector is playing a key role in Ireland’s export led economic recovery.”
He added: “The positive growth experienced in 2010 has continued into 2011 and it is important that the 300,000 jobs in the sector are not jeopardised by unrealistic and unachievable emission reduction targets.”
