Ireland's proposed carbon budget approach is "not enough" and needs to be reassessed, a climate expert has said.
It comes after new research claimed Ireland's climate targets protect privileges towards methane emissions at the expense of the development of poorer nations.
Research Fellow at University College Cork and co-author of the study Dr Róisín Moriarty said that at the heart of the proposed carbon budget is an approach of temperature neutrality, or "no additional warming".
She said the study, which has been published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, examined using this approach as a way to set national policy on agricultural methane reductions.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Dr Moriarty said that if every country in the world did this then achieving the limit of the Paris Agreement "really difficult".
The study found that a concept, which has been coined 'temperature neutrality', allows Ireland to maintain a high share of global agricultural methane emissions while also claiming to to meet its climate targets.
Dr Moriarty said countries can appear to be in line with targets but are are "not really making much change" in methane emissions.
She explained that agriculture has huge potential to contribute to a climate neutral Ireland, but using temperature neutrality is not a robust and transparent way to do this as it sets targets too low.
If targets are too low, Dr Moriarty said, then the plan will not reflect the scale of change that needs to happen and farmers will not be able to make targets in line with the Paris Agreement.
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She said globally, there is a need for net zero greenhouse gas to be achieved by all countries doing everything they possibly can.
Dr Moriarty added that there is a need for a peak and decline approach instead of stabilising emissions.
"Stabilisation is not enough," she said.
"The temperature neutrality approach isn't sufficient for Ireland’s carbon budgets to be aligned with the 1.5C limit of the Paris Agreement".
Dr Moriarty added that there is a need for the proposed carbon budgets to be more stringent, to align with the Paris Agreement.
The study was led by University of Galway in partnership with the University of Melbourne, University College Cork and Climate Resource.
