Northern Ireland will need to take more than 1 million sheep and cattle to meet new legally binding climate emissions targets, according to an industry commissioned analysis by the Guardian.
The large-scale reduction of farm animals took place after The Judiciary’s First Climate Actrequires the agricultural sector to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and reduce methane emissions by nearly 50% over the same period.
About a third are caused by humans methane emissions from livestock, mainly from belching and manure from beef and dairy cows. The KPMG analysis, commissioned by industry representatives including the Ulster Farmers Union (UFU), estimates more than 500,000 head of cattle and around 700,000 sheep will need to be lost for Northern Ireland to be able to meet its targets. new climate.
Separate analysis by the UK government’s climate advisers shows that chicken numbers will also need to be cut by 5 million by 2035. Both Poultry and swine industry in North Ireland has grown rapidly over the past decade.
Agriculture accounts for around 27% of Northern Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions, with the majority coming from livestock. The export-focused meat industry mainly supplies the UK, but it also export arrive China and North America.
Chris Stark, chief executive of the CCC, told the Guardian a shift to farming could be necessary if food production levels remain the same in Northern Ireland. “One condition in our model is that we produce the same amount of food per capita in 2050,” he said. “But it’s very difficult to do that unless you see a change in farming practices,” he said. farming, and especially unless you see a shift between crop farming versus livestock farming.
Agriculture not only accounts for a large portion of NI (and Ireland’s) emissions, but also accounts for a great deal of GDP, directly and indirectly.
There is a reason why Ireland is more dominated by pastoralism than farming. That’s because most land is not suitable for growing crops, certainly at a profitable level. Most of the soil is rocky and the climate is too humid. That is why Ireland was so dependent on potatoes at the time of the Great Famine.
Currently only 4% of N Ireland’s arable land is arable.
https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/landing-pages/st Statistics
Although agricultural workers make up only 7% of the country’s labor force, many people depend on the rural economy. Overall, the rural population makes up about 40% of the total population in N Ireland. The destruction of a large part of the crop industry would be a disaster for rural areas. For example, replacing the meat and dairy industries with potatoes would reduce incomes and lead to mass migration out of the countryside.
Perhaps the most shocking part of the Guardian’s report was the reaction of Chris Stark, who was more concerned with his role model than with people’s lives. It also raises questions about how all of this will be enforced. The farmer certainly will not be willing to give up.
Shades of the infamous Land Reform in the USSR?
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