Wilson meets Climate Change Committee

The delegation from the CCC included the Chair of the organisation Nigel Topping and Mr Wilson said it was a very useful engagement.

Commenting after the engagement Mr Wilson MLA stated: “This was a useful engagement and a great opportunity to highlight to the CCC Chair the difficulties facing Northern Ireland and with a particular reference to our agri-food sector which is of course so vital to our economy and food security.”

He added: “I was somewhat bewildered to listen to Sinn Fein speak of the impact of the current Northern Ireland climate change legislative requirements, when in fact Sinn Fein were one of the most enthusiastic parties for net zero as opposed to the original Climate Change Committee advice of 82% reductions by 2050.

“Whilst the original proposals as outlined in the original Departmental Bill reflected the reasonable advice of the CCC advocating for a UK wide joined up approached and a target of 82% by 2050, we had the reality of other parties including a counter-bill by the Green Party, pushing for even stricter targets and more narrow timing windows. This served no one well and in fact as we can now see it has led to much more concern and expense in the wider rural agriculture community.”

Mr Wilson continued: “Whilst legislatively, after considerable Assembly debate and votes, a half-way house was arrived at, the targets that are legally binding on Northern Ireland are clearly still much too onerous and in my view not reflective of Northern Ireland’s tiny contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do everything we can to ensure that all sectors of life in Northern Ireland take what steps they can to ensure our climate is cared for, however it should not be at the expense of livelihoods or place an unmanageable pressure on one sector over another.

“The original CCC advice and the original DAERA Bill, which would have saw Northern Ireland play its part and crucially as part of a UK-wide effort, now looks like a very reasonable course of action.

"However I cannot sit back and allow a new narrative to be spun as ‘concern’ on aspects of the legislation from parties who were tripping over themselves to push for the most unachievable climate targets imaginable. This has caused concern across industry and of course across the farming community given the unfair criticism and focus it has come under in recent times. Our agri-food sector is vital to Northern Ireland and our ability to both produce food and care for the climate should be viewed as mutually complimentary.”