Fianna Fáil said the Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris will present huge opportunities for Ireland as well as challenges.

The party's General Election candidate, Cllr Jim O'Callaghan, said it is essential that as a country, we get a fair deal in negotiations over the technical details associated with Greenhouse Gas (GHG) reduction targets and their measurement.

Mr O'Callaghan said: "Only recently the European Council recognised that the absence of land use, land use change and forestry was a major gap in EU policy response to climate change. It is essential that negotiators at COP21 also recognise the major contribution of such sequestration resources in curbing emissions levels.

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"There are also huge opportunities for Ireland to achieve win-win outcomes in meeting our reduction targets. For example, only 11% of our land is forested compared to 33% across the EU and afforestation has a high potential for helping us meet our emission targets. Even the forests planted only since 1990 absorb a massive 18% of Irish agriculture's annual greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, economic returns from forestry are strongly competitive compared other land uses and could pay a high dividend in terms regional development and employment.

"It is unfortunate that this government have been such laggards in introducing innovative schemes to achieve our carbon and green house reduction targets

"Their policies lack strategic vision and have fundamentally failed to progress the decarbonisation of the Irish economy since coming to office."

(CD/MH)