Ammonia Strategy Consultation

Overview

Consultation on the draft Ammonia Strategy for Northern Ireland
Consultation opened on 4 January 2023. Closing date 3 March 2023.

Summary
The Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) has published a Consultation on the draft Ammonia Strategy for Northern Ireland.

Agriculture makes a significant contribution to the Northern Ireland economy, however it also produces 97% of current ammonia emissions. Therefore, action on ammonia is required urgently to support our local farm businesses and rural communities and help them to thrive and be sustainable, while at the same time protecting our environment. 

With ammonia having the potential to impact various aspects of society we would encourage participation from all interested parties. The documents associated with this consultation can be viewed at:

https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/consultations/draft-ammonia-strategy-northern-ireland-consultation 

Consultation Description

The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) is delighted to present this Consultation on the draft Ammonia Strategy for Northern Ireland and looks forward to hearing your views.

This draft strategy was developed under the leadership of the former DAERA Minister and it will help us plan the way forward to reduce ammonia emissions from agriculture. In DAERA, we recognise that we do not have all the answers and this consultation will help us strengthen the draft strategy with your help. 

We welcome your views and we have posed questions throughout the draft strategy. We are keen to have as many responses as possible to these questions and any other practical and affordable ideas or suggestions. There is more information on page 6 about how to take part in the consultation and your responses will be used to inform a reworked draft Ammonia Strategy for an incoming Minister and new Executive to consider. 

We are also developing a Call for Evidence to inform a new operational protocol to assess the impacts of air pollution on the natural environment and we aim to publish this separately in 2023.

A series of three online seminars on ammonia with leading experts, organised by DAERA in September 2020, are still available for you to view at https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/articles/ammonia-emissions-northern-ireland
These seminars outline: 

· The science behind ammonia.
· The ecological impact of ammonia emissions on habitats.
· Inclusion of specific Northern Ireland data in the UK ammonia inventory.
· The potential for ammonia reduction in Northern Ireland, including associated economic analysis and scenario modelling.
· Case studies on ammonia reduction at individual farm level.
· Ammonia measurement at regional, farm and habitat level in Northern Ireland.

We plan to host consultation events where you can obtain more information on the consultation. These will be updated on this page in due course.

Why your views matter

We want you to tell us what you think of our proposed approach to ammonia reduction. We look forward to hearing from you and are keen to engage with you.

The survey seeks views on our strategic approach, the reduction measures, delivery and monitoring. Some questions have comment boxes for you to provide your answers in, please note the boxes should expand as you continue to type.

If you are unable to complete the survey online please contact the Ammonia Policy team by email at: ammonia@daera-ni.gov.uk

An easy read version of the consultation document is available
online but if you need documents to be provided in an alternative
format, please let us know. 

Responses to this consultation are invited until 11.59pm on
3 March 2023.  Following consideration of all responses, a full analysis report will be published on DAERA’s website.

If you would like to speak to a member of the team about
the Ammonia Strategy Consultation or any of the proposed reduction measures, or if you or a group and would like to participate in stakeholder engagement please let us know by contacting us at ammonia@daera-ni.gov.uk.

Privacy 

The information you provide in completing this consultation will be controlled and processed in line with Data Protection Legislation by DAERA. To find out more about how we handle your personal information, DAERA’s Privacy Notice can be viewed online at  http://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/daera-privacy-statement