Bog-standard research reveals truth on emissions

Is it just another case of plucking a figure out of the air and using it to beat up farmers? Why there was so little questioning of the emissions figures used to justify the rewetting proposals contained in the Nature Restoration Law is puzzling. The one-size-fits-all approach from the EU, in collaboration with several Irish agencies and public representatives, goes well beyond Irish peat-based soils. The same logic, or lack of it, applies in relation to the Nitrates Derogation where an assumption is made that our long and productive grass-growing season can be compared to European Continental climatic and soils conditions.
When some basic research was eventually carried out on Irish peat-based grassland emission rates, it found that a gross over-estimate of 65 per cent was made of the contribution of Irish grassland overall to CO₂eq emissions figures. The Teagasc research, discussed recently on a webinar, definitively nails the lie that grassland is a major contributor to greenhouse gas accumulations. Dr Patrick Tuohy outlined the changes made in the carbon inventory for 2024 by the Environmental Protection Agency, which has now accepted the revised figures, which are backed up by separate research from the International Peat Society. Farmers were heavily criticised for their farms supposedly releasing over seven million tonnes of emissions annually. It turns out the net figure is closer to 2.5 million tonnes. That’s before any account is taken of the circular nature of emissions from Irish soils and grasslands, where grass, plants and hedgerows sequester CO₂ in vast amounts. 

National Ploughing Association (NPA) managing director, Anna May McHugh congratulates the newly elected NPA chair, John Deery, from Co. Monaghan, and the newly elected NPA president, Mick Mahon, from Co. Offaly. This is the first time that a Monaghan man has held this presidential position.