To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing legal limits of carbon emissions for incinerators in Northern Ireland.

The latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory indicates that 0.8 MtCO2e Tonnes of emissions are derived from waste management each year. This equates to approximately 4% of Northern Irelands greenhouse gas emissions and is nearly a 58% decrease in emissions from the base year 1990. The Committee on Climate Change report on Reducing Emissions in Northern Ireland published in February 2019 highlighted that the emissions from waste are almost entirely (95%) methane, the main source of which was anaerobic decomposition of biodegradable waste in landfill sites (75%). Further analysis of the NI Greenhouse Gas Inventory indicates that waste incineration generates 0.017% of Northern Ireland’s annual carbon emissions.

Whilst energy recovery can be necessary in certain circumstances, my Department is committed to applying the waste hierarchy in accordance with Article 4 of the Waste Framework Directive. Where waste cannot be prevented, reuse should be encouraged. If reuse is not suitable or the item has reached the end of its useful life, recycling should be undertaken. Only once these options have been exhausted should energy recovery or landfill be considered.

In 2020 Northern Ireland exported almost 126,000 tonnes of Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) outside of the UK. My focus is therefore on increasing the quality and quantity of recycling to realise the maximum economic benefit to Northern Ireland and prevent lost opportunity.