Bridging the Gap in Ireland's Effort Sharing Decision: An Examination of Potential Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Abatement Measures

Abstract

Under the effort sharing decision, Ireland is required to deliver a 20% reduction in non-ETS greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 (relative to 2005 levels). Ireland’s current 2020 forecast for non-ETS emissions, shows that non-ETS sectors are expected to breach the effort sharing decision target of 37.8 Mt/CO2eq by 4.3Mt/CO2eq. The five agriculture greenhouse gas abatement measures chosen are aimed at reducing the two most prominent greenhouse gases in Ireland’s agriculture sector, methane (Through animal nutritional abatement measures) and nitrous oxide (Through fertilizer application abatement measures). The adoption potential of the five selected measures shows that the combined realistic abatement potential, in 2020, to be 3.2 Mt/CO2eq. The applied adoption rates (per annum) for behavioral change measures and measures that require investment was set at 6.5% and 5% respectively. With the implementation of the chosen abatement measures, Ireland’s 2020 gap is reduced to just 0.7Mt/CO2eq. The selected agricultural greenhouse gas abatement measures will only be successfully adopted through incentivisation and through the introduction of advisory programmes.