The Ennis-based President of the Irish Roads Haulage Assoication is accusing the Government of ‘losing touch’ with the industry when it comes to carbon budgets.
The State has targeted a 51 percent reduction in emissions by 2030, with the new budgets to contained emissions ceilings for each sector of the economy.
The first five-year carbon budget will require cuts of 4.8 percent a year compared with emissions in 2018, with a yearly reduction of 8.4 percent planned after 2025.
Ministers will agree sectoral ceilings in the coming weeks, including in the areas of agriculture and transport.
Clare’s Green Senator doesn’t believe those living in rural areas will necessarily be disproportionately impacted when the ceilings are announced.
Inagh-based Senator Roisin Garvey says there are examples in this county of those successfully cutting emissions in rural areas.
It’s reported the agriculture sector could have to reduce its emissions by between 20 and 30 per cent to achieve the country’s 2030 climate goals.
The Junior Agriculture Minister Martin Heydon has said the national herd wouldn’t necessarily have to be reduced to meet that target.
Clare County Chair of the ICMSA and O Callaghans Mills farmer, Martin McMahon, says if these does happen, farmers will have to be compensated accordingly.
The Ennis-based President of the Irish Roads Haulage Assoication claims the Government needs to think of life beyond the Red Cow when imposing sectoral carbon budgets.
Eugene Drennan says what’s being asked of his industry is too heavy a burden in such a short space of time.
