A chara, – The farming and rural communities have every right to be concerned about the passage of the Climate Action Bill through the Oireachtas.
The Bill is based on the false premise that Ireland, and agriculture in particular, are major contributors to global warming.
The irrefutable fact, according to a United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Report (UNFCCC) in 2018, and rarely mentioned by those in favour of the current agenda, is that our contribution to global warming is a mere 0.128 per cent of the world total.
Irish agricultural emissions, being 35 per cent of Ireland’s total, therefore contribute a minuscule 0.042 per cent to global warming. To add insult to injury, farmers do not receive any credits for CO2 capture through photosynthesis across their lands, hedges, trees and forests.
:fill(white):background_color(white)/static.themebuilder.aws.arc.pub/irishtimes/1647534191476.png)
The other conveniently ignored fact is that, according to the UNFCCC, the vast bulk of global warming is, and has been historically generated elsewhere, specifically in the highly industrialised countries of China, US, EU, India, Russia, Japan, Brazil and Germany, among many others.
It is also a fact that the growing and serious effects of global warming do not recognise international borders and are therefore largely imported and imposed on our small island.
It follows that the Government, rather than resorting to misleading and exaggerated rhetoric and demonising the farming and rural communities, should consider renegotiating its unattainable, hugely expensive and unnecessary international commitments.
The key issue must be to manage our own small contribution to global warming proportionately – in a pragmatic, responsible and timely manner, that does not permanently damage our economy and our most successful indigenous industry, and does not lead us ultimately to bankrupting the country again. – Is mise,
JOHN LEAHY,
Cork.