The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed TD, today launched the IIEA/RDS report - A Climate-Smart Pathway for Irish Agricultural Development -

Exploring the Leadership Opportunity.

At the launch the Minister outlined his ambition for Ireland “to be a global leader in sustainable food production.  Our road to a low carbon economy in Ireland includes an approach to carbon neutrality in the agriculture and land-use sector, including forestry, which does not compromise capacity for sustainable food production.” The Minister added “We have a climate efficient agriculture sector, but more needs to be done to ensure that we are, and remain, the most sustainable producer in the world of milk, beef and other agri-food products”, a sentiment echoed in the report.

Minister Creed thanked the IIEA and the RDS for hosting the very successful series of talks and workshops under the Leadership Forum on Climate Smart Agriculture which led to this report.  

The goal of the Forum was to promote awareness and adoption of climate-smart agricultural policies and practices in Ireland, and to establish Ireland as a climate-smart leader internationally.  Discussions focussed on new policies, technologies, practices, and financial frameworks which can be deployed in response to emerging challenges. 

While this is an independent report, it will, the Minister said, “add to the debate on what is a very important topic, and I would urge all stakeholders to engage actively with this discussion and with practical actions”.  He went on to say he has no doubt that the unique challenges we face will lead to “innovative thinking and ground breaking solutions.”

The Minister reaffirmed that the very active role his Department is playing at EU and international level in the debate on Climate Smart Agriculture, which is acknowledged in the report, will continue and be intensified in the coming months and years.

“To succeed in our goals towards climate-smart agriculture and global leadership in this field, we must not only be environmentally, socially and economically responsive, we must also be coordinated and ambitious.” the Minister said.

To View Press Release as a PDF: DAFMPR 78/2016 (pdf 367Kb) 

Date Released: 14 July 2016