National Mitigation Plan 2017.

This National Mitigation Plan 2017 is a multi-sectoral policy document. The Plan aims at setting Ireland on a decarbonisation pathway to 2050. It sets out over 100 individual actions to be taken by the Government and public bodies to cut emissions in a range of areas including electricity generation, transport, agriculture, forestry and land use.
The Plan consider that balancing the environmental objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions with the economic and social objective of promoting the sustainable development of a rural economy is critical. The overarching principles being pursued include: Recognising the multiple objectives of agriculture and land use in a vibrant rural economy; Promoting sustainable intensification of food production to reduce the carbon intensity of food production and to contribute to both food security and greenhouse gas mitigation objectives; Encouraging sustainable land management, afforestation and other forest sector mitigation activities; etc. Actions are identified, including: Further develop the range and depth of sustainability information collected for beef, dairy and other agriculture sectors.
The plan promotes to enable more inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems through: Efficient multi trait animal breeding strategies; Exploring feeding strategies that maximise the efficiency of grass based production systems; Support of improvements to animal health and welfare; etc.
In Ireland, the large share of national emissions from the agriculture sector presents particular challenges. According to the Plan, the long term vision for the agriculture, forest and land use sectors is based on an approach to carbon neutrality in the agriculture and land-use sector, including forestry, which does not compromise capacity for sustainable food production. The Plan proposes the continuation of Agricultural Decarbonisation Measures. Actions proposed include: Continue the work of the cross departmental and agency working group established in 2016 to further improve the monitoring reporting and verification of agricultural abatement options in the inventory to enhance transparency of agricultural and land use actions; Undertake research to further elaborate the concept of carbon neutrality from an Irish agriculture and land use perspective; Continue engagement at EU and international levels to ensure ambition and transparency of agricultural and land use pledges is enhanced in line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement; Undertake research to evaluate abatement actions across the areas of Climate, Air (including GHG), Water and Biodiversity to develop an integrated abatement strategy and cost curve; Undertake an in-house review to consider additional synergies between the Nitrates Action Plan and climate change policy, with a view to feeding into future updates of the Nitrates Action Plan; Continue to improve knowledge transfer and exchange to farmers by developing a network across State agencies and relevant advisory bodies; etc.