Controversial moves to introduce incentives for planting trees on peatlands will only increase carbon emissions, the Climate Change Advisory Council has warned.
In its annual review of agriculture, land use and forestry, published on Wednesday, the council said: “Urgent action and strengthened policy levers are required to incentivise increased tree planting to ensure Ireland’s forestry sector does not become a source of greenhouse gas emissions.”
The Government’s forestry policy is not achieving planting levels needed to meet climate targets despite an overhaul in recent years, it stated.
“Current afforestation policy is inadequate to meet our future needs as tree-planting rates remain well below the target of 8,000 hectares per year.” In 2024 the State added just 1,573 hectares of new forest; the lowest number in nearly 80 years.
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Minister of State Michael Healy-Rae has said it may be necessary to plant trees on deep peatlands to address timber shortages.
But the independent advisory body has concluded that all evidence suggests “this leads to significant carbon losses over time”. It is, therefore, “essential that current constraints on afforestation on deep peat remain unchanged and are rigorously enforced”, it said.
Mr Healy-Rae told the Seanad in May that he and officials in the Department of Agriculture would look at planting trees on peatland in what would be a reversal of current restrictions.
He suggested the ban on planting trees on deeper peatlands could result in a future shortage of timber, meaning a “stupid” reliance on Scottish imports.
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In response, leading climate scientist Prof Peter Thorne of Maynooth University, who is chair of the council’s adaptation committee, said afforesting peatlands was “environmental vandalism” and “about the dumbest thing we can do” from the point of view of climate action.
Commenting on the need for improved performance in the forestry sector, council chair Marie Donnelly said: “What we have seen in the sector is a failure of policy, with schemes to incentivise more planting not delivering the results required. This has been exacerbated by damage to forests during the winter with Storms Darragh and Éowyn, which resulted in over 26,000 hectares damaged by windthrow.”
There is a need for a policy from Government that will “actively encourage afforestation in the areas most suited to planting”.
The council highlighted the opportunity for the forestry sector to deliver modern methods of construction, notably expansion of timber frame construction with potential for a strong domestic market for locally-produced timber.
This would reduce significant amounts of carbon, it said, given one cubic metre of timber replacing concrete and steel in construction saves 0.77 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Yet only 24 per cent of building construction in Ireland is timber, compared with more than 80 per cent in Finland, Scotland and Sweden. Building with timber is at cost parity with conventional construction systems.
With emissions from agriculture having decreased by just 1.7 per cent in 2024 relative to 2023, and by 4.6 per cent relative to 2018, the council said an accelerated roll out of proven on-farm measures were required.
With agriculture remaining Ireland’s largest source of emissions, it called for “deployment of methane-reducing manure additives and greater use of protected urea fertilisers”, which reduce ammonia loss and greenhouse gases.
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Increasing diversification in farming is critical alongside scaling up biomethane production using anaerobic digesters, it said. “Implementation of the national biomethane strategy has been piecemeal to date, leading to a worryingly low level of interest in progressing this mitigation option.”
The Government needs to ensure all available instruments, including taxation, regulation and incentives, are in place to enable farmers to make necessary changes to on-farm practices.
“Diversification is vital for the long-term sustainability of the sector, and the Government should set annual targets for the roll out of diversification options including bioenergy, organic productions systems, expanded tillage and agroforestry with policies to support this,” Ms Donnelly said.
