Profound implications for the rural economy, agriculture, transport, and home heating.
The carbon budget recommendations, put forward by the Climate Change Advisory Council to the Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan, would destroy the existing way of life in rural Ireland, according to the Rural Independent Group.
Reacting to the recommendations, which were published earlier in the week, the Leader of the Rural Independent Group, Deputy Mattie Mc Grath, stated:
“The recommendations made by the lofty Climate Change Advisory Council, who are insulated from the pain, would hammer every sector crucial to rural life, including agriculture and transportation, with increased living costs, ending both turf cutting and rural one-off housing.”
“The government outsourced power to this quango under the Climate Action legislation. The Rural Independent Group were the only grouping in the Dáil to exclusively oppose this nonsensical approach, which undermines democracy and removes input from ordinary citizens.”
“Warnings by our group around the damaging impact of climate change policies and devolution of power to an unelected quango have now come to pass, as their technical report outlines a deep reduction in cattle numbers to meet higher climate targets.”
“The report aggressively targets the Irish suckler herd, to meet carbon targets. For instance, to achieve the recommended agricultural emissions reduction of 33 per cent, suckler cow numbers would have to be reduced to approximately 20 percent on 2018 levels, which would represent a cull of about 200,000 alone.”
“Proposals to reduce the suckler cow herd, to as low as 200,000 cows in one of the five scenarios outlined in the report, completely undermine the important role played by farmers to promote sustainable grazing and its beneficial impact in sequestering carbon.”
“The first carbon budget, running from 2021 to 2025, requires emissions to reduce by 4.8 per cent on average each year for five years. The second budget, running from 2026 to 2030, will see emissions reduce by 8.3 per cent on average each year. These proposals are not strategically planned and they come with to information on how the transition will work, despite the proposals costing billions to implement, which will be paid for entirely by the taxpayer.”
“Ultimately, how these reductions are going to be achieved on a sector by sector basis will now be decided, and the targets for each sector contained within the Government’s climate plan, which will be reportedly released on November 3rd.”
“Once again, we are calling on the government to make a special dispensation for the agricultural sector and the transport sector in rural Ireland, where a lack of public transport means no alternatives exist.”
“These proposed carbon budgets will have a destructive impact on society and the economy and will increase the costs of living even further, while chipping away our food production capacity into the future.”
“The government must wake up and halt this frenzied and fanatical approach. Proceeding with damaging carbons budgets, without analysis of the costs and benefits, is downright crazy,” according to Deputy Mc Grath.
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