Carbon Footprint report of the Irish Seafood Sector

All sectors of society are increasingly seeking to adhere to the sustainability principles as laid down by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and, as part of these efforts, are striving to achieve Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050 as agreed by 194 countries under the 2015 United Nations Paris agreement. It is now recognised that achieving sustainability and implementing climate action are essential steps to ensuring that the planet will be able to support a growing population of more than 8 billion people. The fight against climate change is more evident than ever, and food production is seen as a key component in this struggle. Aquaculture and sea fishing, like all human activities, contribute to and will be highly impacted by climate change. 

A key challenge for current and future generations is to produce healthy and nutritious food in a way that does not harm the planet. In essence, there is recognition that human health is tightly connected to the health of ecosystems and the environment and that these ecosystems and the environment must be managed sustainably to protect ourselves. To respond to these challenges and to limit the rise of average global temperatures to less than 1.5°C, all sectors of society are seeking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Irish seafood sector is deeply conscious of sustainability and the decarbonising agenda and sees climate action and achieving Net Zero as a primary objective in the decades to come. The challenge for our sector is to continuously improve the way in which we grow and catch seafood. The opportunity is to provide the consumer with seafood that is healthy and nutritious and in so doing, to sustain a prosperous seafood sector that will continue to directly employ over 8,000 people in the coastal regions of Ireland. This report provides a carbon baseline for the Irish seafood sector and is an excellent starting point on the journey to achieving Net Zero by 2050. Decarbonising will be an enormous task, but the benefits will be enormous too.