University of Galway Insight’s Niall Ó Brolcháin is headed for the Electric Picnic this weekend. While there he will be giving a talk about peatlands and their role in the effort to reduce the worst of the climate crisis.

He explains, “Peatlands are responsible for roughly 5% of Global GHG emissions which is more than all air travel and all shipping added together. We need to realise that peatland restoration presents us with perhaps the largest global low hanging fruit for reducing GHG emissions quickly by rehydrating them. They are the world’s most efficient ecosystem for storing carbon at least twice as good as forests. In Ireland we emit 2 to 3 times as much CO2eq from badly damaged peatlands as the EU average. This presents us with a great opportunity and a leadership role.

“Since the start of the EU Interreg Care Peat project in 2019, Ireland has moved from being the country with the largest level of peatland destruction in the EU to the country with the largest level of peatland restoration in the EU. The University of Galway with partners from Insight/DSI and the Ryan Institute together with the National Parks and Wildlife Service and Bord na Móna have played a key role in this transformation, pioneering new techniques including novel methods of data collection and evidence based policy development. We intend to continue to build on that success.”

Ó Brolcháin will be speaking at 3pm on Saturday as part of the Eco Showboat installation in the Mindfield section of the festival.