Barriers to Ireland’s 2026-2030 climate change targets
A Teagasc delegation addressed the Joint Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy meeting on October 1, identifying key barriers that may prevent Ireland from meeting its 2026-2030 climate change targets.
The collective of Dr Karl Richards, Head of Teagasc Climate Centre, Professor Pat Dillon, Director of Research, and Dr. Kevin Hanrahan, Head of Rural Economy and Development Programmes, presented Teagasc’s views on the matter.
In his opening statement to the committee, Dr Richards detailed how Teagasc’s Climate Action Strategy increased the resources devoted to climate and biodiversity related research and knowledge transfer. Built upon three pillars of 1). the Signpost Advisory Programme, 2). the Teagasc Climate Centre and 3). the AgNav decision support tool, this strategy aims to support farmers and the industry respond to the climate challenge.
The development and implementation of measures from the Teagasc Marginal Abatement Cost Curve (MACC) was also discussed. The Teagasc MACC identifies the most cost-effective pathway to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and enhance carbon sequestration in the Agricultural, Land-Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry sectors plus (Bio) energy.
And despite the uptake of some measures being accelerated at farm level, measures with slower uptake include:
- Lime use has remained static at 1M T per year.
- The age of finishing cattle has increased to 26.5 months in 2024.
- Afforestation rates in 2024 were 1,573 ha compared to the target of 8,000 ha per year.
- The growing of grass for biomethane and the use of AD digestate to replace chemical nitrogen fertiliser needs to be accelerated.
On the knowledge transfer aspect, Dr Richards noted that Teagasc has strengthened on the support on climate action and the implementation of MACC measures through both the Signpost Advisory Programme and the Signpost Demonstration Farm Programme.
“The Signpost Advisory Programme, using AgNav, has prepared 16,000 farm climate action plans where farmers have voluntarily self-selected MACC measures to implement on their farms,” he told the committee.
However, despite knowledge transfer playing an important role, he noted that for the further adoption of new measures, policies and incentives are also needed to achieve the very ambitious levels of adoption required to deliver the sectoral target set for agriculture.