Over the course of the three-day championships, 270,000 people are expected to visit the event in Screggan, Co Offaly
President Catherine Connolly has warned about climate change in her opening address to the 95th National Ploughing Championships in Offaly, saying that “we ignore these warnings at our peril”.
“It is crystal-clear that we cannot continue with business as usual,” President Connolly said as she pointed to a report by the UN which showed that global heating will reach a least 1.8C beyond the Paris Climate accord of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees.
Her comments come after many farmers were forced to use their winter fodder earlier this year due to stunted grass growth following an extended period of drought brought about by hot weather.
As thousands of people descended on the fields outside Tullamore for the three-day agricultural event, President Connolly said “farmers have to be at the heart” of any processes to tackle climate change.
Over the course of the three-day championships, 270,000 people are expected to visit the event in Screggan.
“It is urgent that we begin to make the transformative change needed to build a sustainable and food-secure future,” she said.
“That change has to be resourced, and farmers have to be at the heart of that process, it is absolutely essential that we take your hard work and wisdom into account in a policy that looks to a country that will be food secure in the future.”
The 10th President of Ireland was attending the Ploughing for the first time since assuming the role.
President Connolly said that while the Irish government had declared a Climate and Biodiversity Emergency seven years ago – followed in 2019 by a commitment to take action – “regrettably, the stark statistics coming from a wide range of sources tell us that that action has not taken place.”
“Unfortunately, the Ploughing Championships this year take place this year against the backdrop of unprecedented global heating due to climate change, causing the extreme weather events we see all around the world.”
The President pointed to a report from the Copernicus Institute that shows that this year Western Europe had experienced its hottest June-July period on record, with August competing with July 2023 for the hottest month ever recorded.
“No doubt the heat and drought has affected the lives and livelihoods of many of you here today,” she said.
“Just last week a report by the UN Environment Programme stated that, even in the most optimistic future, global heating will reach at least 1.8°C – well beyond the Paris Agreement of 1.5°C. Every fraction of a degree intensifies extreme weather events.
“In parallel with the climate statistics, equally worrying are the statistics in relation to our import and export of food.”
She cited the Climate Change Advisory Council’s review released last week, which said that Ireland’s food supply “highly dependent on imports and vulnerable to a range of external disruptions and risks”.
The President pointed to the number of commercial vegetable growers on the island of Ireland, saying they had fallen to fewer than 70, down from more than 600 in the 1990s.
“Approximately 83pc of all fruit and vegetables consumed in Ireland are imported, we also continue to export 90pc of the food produced in this country, I think we all could agree that this requires urgent attention,” she said.
However, the President said there was hope in the report she mentioned while also highlighting the “damning statistics”, and thanked farmers for their work.
“In Ireland, our connection with the land is visceral, arising from our long struggle to regain ownership and sovereignty of our land and country,” she said to the gathered crowds on the opening day of the annual event.
“That history is embedded in our DNA as a people, and in particular in our country’s farmers and families who have long taken pride in their role as custodians of our fields, pastures and meadows.”