THE €270 million earmarked by Government to buy carbon credits should be spent on planting and developing forestry, a Dáil committee was told yesterday.
David Gunning, chief executive of Coillte, the semi-State forestry service, said reducing carbon emission by giving this money to landowners for forestry development would be the best possible plan.
In his submission to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food, he said the traditional forest management model was no longer valid.
The new model, he said, was to focus on mitigating climate change, with the new purpose of innovative and sustainable management of renewable resources.
“We are moving to lessen dependence on construction and commodities and utilising all our assets and adding value which, of course, can be environmental and social as well as economic,” he said.
On the fall in profits from €40 million in 2007 to €9.2 million last year, he said the company had been hit by falling demand, lower prices and sterling exchange rates.