Where’s the ‘deep dive’ into transport emissions?

This will be aimed at ‘understanding the dynamic relationship between agriculture and the environment’ and updating the CSO’s data under various agricultural headings including land use, biodiversity and ecosystems services, climate and environmental impact, soil health and other areas. 
On behalf of all the members of the ICMSA, may I say how much we are looking forward to the CSO announcing a similar ‘deep dive’ into the data of other sectors identified as requiring action on environmental grounds – you know, things like urban wastewater treatment, data centres, and the impact of the Dublin Airport cap.

We are perplexed that the CSO seems to be singling out farming and agriculture, yet again, for special attention under a variety of headings with the specific aim, it seems, of assembling ‘a comprehensive list of agri-environmental indicators across various themes monitored and reported by the CSO in one central space’. We feel compelled to ask, where is the announcement of, say, a transport indicator resource? Given that the Government’s own figures show that agri-emissions fell last year by around 4.5 per cent, while transport emissions actually increased, shouldn’t that sector be treated to the same level of attention? 

Saddled

There’s a nagging feeling among farmers, and it’s one based on bitter experience, that despite the Government’s repeated and vehement assurances that every sector will have to play its role in reducing emissions, that some sectors – specifically farming – are going to be saddled with a disproportionate share of the burden while others would be allowed to plead special exemptions and ‘vital national interest’.
It is difficult to imagine a more ‘vital national interest’ than producing the food that powers a €16bn export-orientated sector. But the CSO announcement only serves to reinforce farmers’ suspicions that data is constantly being assembled to use in a regulatory way against farming and the wider agri-sector while other sectors like data centres and air travel are allowed ‘mark their own homework’.

We absolutely will not allow a situation where farmers are asked to carry other sectors’ burdens

A word of caution

I know that this is a relatively new Government and there are huge issues crowding in for their attention, but I do caution the Government against even the perception of sectoral favouritism on what is going to be a fraught and difficult drive to hit the national targets on emissions reductions.

The ICMSA has always said that farmers will play our part. But equally we have always said – and I’ll repeat it again – that we absolutely will not allow a situation where farmers or the farming sector is asked to carry other sectors’ burdens through to the new lower-emissions society and economy. Agri emissions are going down while transport emissions are actually still rising. But the CSO announces a ‘deep-dive’ into the data from farming under several sub-headings? If there is a deep dive into agriculture, the same should apply to other sectors and the Government must understand that we will not allow ourselves to be anyone’s whipping boy here.

Encouraging signals

While we’re on the subject of launches, a quick word on the EU Commission’s launch of Vision for Agriculture and Food. There seems to be a long-overdue acknowledgment of what has been obvious to farmers for years: that the agriculture sector is suffering; and that that sector is of huge strategic significance for the EU. We also detect encouraging signals on the failure of the ‘one-size-fits-all’ policy; the realisation that imports will have to meet EU standards; that below-cost selling is a problem; that generational renewal is critical with positive comments on a farm retirement scheme. These are all issues that the ICMSA, in common with others, have identified for years as requiring answers. This ‘vision’ shows the Commission finally conceding that they do need to be addressed, and we now need to see real actions that build on the positive sentiments the vision contains.
On simplification and the ‘rolling-back’ of regulations, I would point out that we are just barely nine weeks into 2025, and farmers in Ireland have already seen new rules in relation to veterinary medicines, new rules on nitrates, and new rules on peatlands to name but three. So there’s no sign of a simplification of farm-related rules. The next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) budget – on which work has begun already – will signal the sincerity of today’s vision and we will need to see a significantly expanded CAP budget and the end of the ‘robbing-Peter-to-pay-Paul’ practices that had rendered CAP almost irrelevant.