The European institutions are currently scrutinising a legislative proposal, known as the National Emissions Ceilings Directive, which sets binding reduction targets for six air pollutants.

According to the European Commission, the objective of this legislation is to curb air pollution, which is responsible for over 400,000 premature deaths in the EU each year.

Agriculture is the largest emitter of two of the six air pollutants singled out under the legislation, namely ammonia and methane. The European Commission proposal includes overall reduction targets of 27% for ammonia and 33% for methane, with specific limits to be achieved by 2020, 2025 and 2030.

The new piece of legislation updates the existing directive, which included a limit for ammonia in Ireland of 116 kt to be achieved by 2010 and in each year thereafter. According to the EPA, ammonia emissions in 2013 were under this limit at 107.8 kt.

A specific target for methane was not included under the original legislation.

Under the new proposal, Member States have been allocated national ceilings for each pollutant. The Commission allocated targets to each Member States based on the Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollution Interactions and Synergies (GAINS) model developed by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA).

As a result, Ireland has been set a 7% reduction target on 2005 levels for both ammonia and methane. This is the most lenient target set for any Member State. For example, Denmark has been set reduction targets of 37% and 24% respectively for ammonia and methane.

The proposal has met with strong opposition in both the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. Several Member States are facing targets, which if enacted would impact severely on their agricultural sectors. In the European Parliament, the Agriculture Committee voted to remove methane from the proposal, arguing that methane is already regulated under existing climate change legislation. Unfortunately, the Environment Committee, which has overall responsibility for this piece of legislation has voted narrowly in support of the Commission proposal, maintaining binding limits for both ammonia and methane.

The European Parliament at plenary session will vote on the proposal in October before final negotiations between the EU institutions take place with view to concluding a final agreement in 2016.

By Eamonn Farrell