New study finds proposed Irish climate targets protect methane emission privileges at the expense of poorer nations' development.

The transition to a sustainable and equitable food system is being undermined by a new approach to climate target setting by livestock exporting countries such as Ireland and New Zealand, an international study by climate scientists has warned.

The study led by University of Galway in partnership with the University of Melbourne, University College Cork and Climate Resource has been published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

The scientists have called out the new “temperature neutrality”, also known as "no additional warming", which allows Ireland to maintain a high share of global agricultural methane emissions while claiming to meet its climate targets.

This approach dramatically reduces the level of ambition needed for overall greenhouse gas emission reduction. The resulting targets have been proposed to the Irish Government by the Climate Change Advisory Council, in part to reduce potential disruption from Ireland’s legal commitment to achieve national climate neutrality by 2050.

Since the mid-1990s, the Greenland ice sheet has been losing mass, leaving only three floating tongues remaining. One of these, Nioghalvfjerdsbræ or the 79°N Glacier, is already showing the first signs of instability. In addition to the warm ocean water, which is increasingly thinning the ice from below, the runoff of meltwater on the surface is also playing an increasingly significant role. In a new study, researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute investigated how - caused by global warming -  a 21 km2 large meltwater lake formed and developed on the surface of the 79°N Glacier. They observed that over the years, this lake has caused gigantic cracks and the outflowing water is lifting the glacier. Their findings have been published in the journal The Cryosphere.