Should Irish dairy farmers plant more trees to offset carbon emissions?

Planting more trees can play a positive role in reducing the impact of carbon emissions. Through a process called photosynthesis, trees can absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. Planting more trees alone, however, is not sufficient to offset carbon emissions and needs to be carried out in conjunction with other sustainability strategies.

There are numerous schemes in place, specific to Irish dairy production, that aim to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. However it is important to remember that fields containing grass are naturally sequestrating carbon whereas fallow land is not.

Extra Information:

While planting more trees will offset carbon emissions, the sequestration capacity of trees, hedgerows and even grass is not considered in the calculation used for carbon footprinting of farms. The reason for this is that nearly all carbon footprinting models used internationally do not include it. If this was to change, and the sequestering of carbon by trees, hedgerows and grassland was to be included, Ireland could potentially preform even better than it does already compared to its international counterparts.