The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed T.D., and the Minister for State, Andrew Doyle T.D., today launched a public consultation process on a draft Climate Change Adaptation Plan in the agriculture, forest and seafood sector. Adaptation is the process of preparing for the impacts of climate disruption, including, preparations for events such as flooding, fodder shortages or extreme weather storms in harbours and in forests.
Launching the plan, Minister Creed said “I am very pleased to launch this public consultation on adaptation planning. We have very much taken a joined up approach to adaptation planning across the Department and have prepared a single plan covering the agriculture, forest and seafood sector”.
The Minister went on to say that in addition to reducing our emissions, we need to ensure that our food production system is resilient and ready to adapt to future climate risk. Farmers, landowners and fishermen are very much to the forefront of dealing with the impacts of a changing climate in their everyday activities However, climate change is not just an issue for the primary producer; it is something that everyone in the production chain needs to consider. The Irish agriculture, forest and seafood sector will not only be impacted by changes in climate here at home, but also by climate change globally”.
Speaking at the launch, Minister Doyle said “Last week saw the launch of the all of Government Plan which focused on mitigation or reducing the amount of emissions that causes climate change. This Plan is a next step in climate action planning. To successfully deal with the challenges facing us, we need to work together to make the right choices. While there will be challenges, there will also be opportunities”.
The draft Adaptation Plan highlights a number of case studies identifying how the sector has and will continue to be impacted by changing weather patterns and steps towards building resilience.
Feedback on the Plan and suggestions as to how the Department and the sector itself can best prepare to operate in a changing climate should be forwarded before the closing date of 16 August.
Further information available here: https://www.agriculture.gov.ie/press/pressreleases/2019/june/title,128903,en.html