Industry & Business

The Government has published the Climate Action Plan, designed to give Irish people a cleaner, safer and more sustainable future. The far-reaching plan sets out over 180 actions, together with hundreds of sub-actions, that need to be taken at a time when the warning signs are growing, and the time for taking action is rapidly reducing.

At a time when we should be radically reducing our reliance on carbon, Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions have been rising rapidly. We are currently 85% dependent on fossil fuels. We have a short window of opportunity to reverse this trend and secure a better, healthier, more resilient future for the country. This means changing the way we heat our homes, the way we travel and the way we power our country.

The plan identifies how Ireland will achieve its 2030 targets for carbon emissions, and puts us on a trajectory to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. It uses the same model as the Action Plan for Jobs.

The Plan embraces every relevant sector: electricity, enterprise, housing, heating, transport, agriculture, waste, and the public sector. It is ambitious but realistic and aims to:

• Eliminate non-recyclable plastic and impose higher fees on the production of materials which are difficult to recycle, implement measures to ban single-use plastic plates, cutlery, straws, balloon sticks and cotton buds
• Establish a new Microgeneration Scheme, allowing homeowners to generate their own electricity and sell what they don’t use back to the national grid;
• Move to 70% renewable electricity by 2030, currently only 30% of our electricity comes from renewable sources;
• Bring 950,000 electric vehicles onto our roads, deliver a nationwide charging network, an electric vehicle scrappage scheme and legislation to ban the sale of petrol / diesel cars from 2030;
• Expand our network of cycling paths and “Park and Ride” facilities, helping ease congestion;
• Deliver an intensive programme of retrofitting to install 400,000 heat pumps in homes and businesses, replacing the existing carbon-intensive heating systems;
• Establish a system of 5 year carbon budgets and sector targets, with the relevant Minister responsible for delivering on the target, with penalities if they are not met. These targets will be underpinned by a new Climate Action Act. All major government investments and decisions will be carbon-proofed;
• Deliver reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture by creating new, sustainable opportunities for family farms
• Deliver a new Retrofit Plan to retrofit 500,000 homes, with large groups of houses being retrofitted by the same contractor to reduce costs, smart finance, and easy pay back methods;
• Every public body will be given a climate action mandate by their line Minister to prioritise climate action and new letters of expectation will issue to semi-state bodies on Climate Action.

The plan also includes actions to ensure that all of us as citizens become engaged and mobilised to take climate action, while ensuring that the necessary societal and economic transition that we have to make is fair, both in Ireland and globally.

The Climate Action Plan, like the Action Plan for Jobs, will be annually updated, with actions reported on quarterly. The government has also approved the establishment of the Climate Action Delivery Board to ensure that the delivery of the plan is overseen by the Taoiseach’s office.

Failure to implement these policies to meet our legally binding EU targets could result in a cost to the Exchequer of up to €1.75 billion over the next decade as well as locking Ireland into a future high carbon trajectory.

Richard Bruton, TD, Minister for Communications, Climate Action, Environment, Energy and Natural Resources, said: “Every generation wants to leave the world in a better place than they found it for their children. We have a short window of opportunity to act. We must act now and leave a better, healthier, more sustainable Ireland for future generations. This Plan provides our way forward.

“We are currently 85% dependent on fossil fuels. This Plan sets out radical reforms, which will cut our reliance on carbon, making our businesses more competitive, our homes more sustainable and our farms more efficient. We will be doing things in new, innovative ways. Most of the actions set out will actually save money in the long-run. We will now implement this Plan, rolling out the required actions through a sustained effort.

“This is a life changing journey and it is a rapid, transformative adjustment that is required. Nothing less will do. We must all now take up the challenge.”

The Government Climate Plan to tackle climate breakdown has been informed by the work of the Citizens Assembly and the work of the All Party Committee on Climate Action, chaired by Hildegarde Naughton.

The Climate Action Plan puts us on a trajectory to meet our 2030 target for carbon emissions, which is consistent with achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The Plan commits to evaluating in detail the changes required to adopt a more ambitious commitment of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. In the new Climate Action Act, we will include a 2050 target in law.