The ICOS Climate Change Working Group met for a second occasion on 21^st April.  External speakers from the Irish High End Computing Centre (ICHEC), Teagasc and Bord Bia delivered presentations. Alastair McKinstry from the ICHEC outlined the latest research work undertaken by ICHEC, Met Eireann, the EPA and UCD in projecting the global and Irish climate in the 21^st century. An interesting presentation, Mr McKinstry outlined projected changes to average temperature, frost days, rainfall, frequency of storms and the growing season.

Trevor Donnellan from Teagasc looked at how Irish agriculture will develop over the next 10-15 years. Mr Donnellan described our EU targets as unrealistic and noted the importance of Ireland negotiating a credible and workable mitigation target. Teagasc are updating their Marginal Abatement Cost Curve, which will outline a list of possible farm mitigation measures.

Michael Houlihan from Bord Bia provided a progress report on the Sustainable Dairy Assurance Scheme, with 11,356 certified suppliers and 14,321 completed audits (including 2,500 renewal audits). Mr Houlihan outlined how the Carbon Navigator Tool works and reviewed the issues covered by their sustainability survey including social sustainability.

Copies of the presentations are available upon request to Eamonn Farrell at eamonn.farrell@icos.ie

Eamonn Farrell

Agri-Food Policy Executive