This is not policy; this is comedy gold

That is, it firstly must be applied wherever and whenever is possible to give it the force of momentum and, secondly, it must make sense.

It must be coherent and developed logically from some indisputable starting fact. We defy anyone to instance a greater single contradiction in any aspect of current Irish Government policy than our official approach and treatment of emissions from agriculture and emissions from aviation – and specifically aviation for tourism and leisure. The ICMSA would contend that the contradictions are, at this stage, so self-evident and overwhelming that official policy is on the verge of impossibility and absurdity.

Scientists criticise

Recently, in the immediate aftermath of the National Ploughing Championships, it was reported that a scathing attack had been made on the Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC) by scientists from four Irish universities. The scientists had accused the Government of interpreting the requirements of international agreements in a way that gave Ireland the ‘leeway’ to keep agri-emissions high. The scientists made the accusation at the Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy, during which they asked the Committee to write to climate minister, Darragh O’Brien to seek an independent expert review of the CCAC’s proposals.

It’s important to acknowledge that the scientists had also queried the State’s failure to factor any flight or shipping-related emissions into official carbon calculations. But we should all still be very struck by our arrival at the lunacy that has Minister O’Brien – who recently signalled the Government’s intention to effectively bypass the passenger cap at Dublin Airport – being urged to take another critical look at the emissions from farming and agri-food. These are emissions from a farming and the agri-sector, it’s well worth remembering, that Ireland has already legislated to reduce by no less than 25 per cent by 2030. The idea that Ireland can legislate for reducing food-related emissions by 25 per cent while simultaneously swerving its own passenger cap at its major airport and trying to increase passenger numbers and related aviation emissions by a similar percentage is now moving well beyond puzzlement and into the realms of satire. This is not policy, this is ‘comedy gold’.   

Contradiction comedy 

There’s a point where you have to pinch yourself as you contemplate this set of conflicting ideas and certainly most farmers – and anyone else that can do the calculations – will have passed that point some time ago. How is it even possible that we ‘ve ended up here where a group of academics are urging a government minister to stop what he’s doing right now – which is frantically attempting to bypass the passenger cap on Dublin Airport in a move that will massively increase the emissions connected with transport – and go back and re-draw the criteria so he can drop the blade again on emissions connected with farming and food production? This is where contradiction becomes comedy.

Are we now in the surreal situation where airline executives decide Ireland’s policy – or non-policy – on aviation emissions while scientists with expertise in emissions urge the State to double-down on the single most vital economic and social factor outside our cities, farming and agri-food sector? Again, a reminder that this is a sector compelled to meet a 25 per cent reduction in emissions within five years – and is making great strides in this regard – while the aviation sector has, thus far, escaped any emissions-reduction targets.
There’s an ‘Alice-in-Wonderland’ feel to this debate and the way it’s being presented. It’s simply not tenable for these scientists to press a minister to increase the amount by which farming will have to reduce its emissions while that same minister is working away on a strategy that will massively increase the number of flights into and out of Ireland with the proportionate rise in emissions that must entail.

The ICMSA strongly urges the Government to begin making its national emissions policy someway coherent because this is ‘comedy gold’ stuff with the joke very definitely and unfortunately first on the Irish farmers and second on the consumers paying higher prices for their food as the emissions restrictions work their way through and production volumes fall.