Originally posted by Geoff Parkstone
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Following a Court case brought by environmental groups against the government, it became Law that nitrogen levels had to reduce by a certain amount by 2030, That case was a few years back. So far, the cabinet has failed to come up with a plan on how to do that which will get through either house.
The thoughts they have cover the following areas...
Reducing the number of livestock by up to 50%. They've allocated something like €25Bn to buy out farmers, preferably on a voluntary basis but if the volunteers don't add up to enough to reach the required reduction, they will use compulsory purchase. Reminder to TTR, there was, and is, no mention of cutting back on arable farming and greenhousery. In fact, some farmers are already moving from livestock to biological arable farming and getting subsidies to make the change.
Industrial concerns that belch out too much nitrogen and CO2 will be instructed to cut back on emissions. This morning, in anticipation of having to clean up their act, Tata Steel asked the government for a €1Bn subsidy in order to carry out the necessary changes......
The government has set a target of 100,000 new homes a year being built between now and 2040. The problem is that the heavy machinery used in building emits a lot of nitrogen through the burning of the diesel fuel they consume. Something like 4 out of every 10 building applications get turned down because the area already has too high a nitrogen level. The housing target won't get met.

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