energy report
Delivering a cleaner energy future
Decarbonising Ireland: The energy challenge John FitzGerald, Chair of the Climate Change Advisory Council, argues that the increased ambition to tackle climate change must be matched by implementation of new measures to drive decarbonisation. Outlining the failure to date to significantly reduce carbon emissions in Ireland, FitzGerald points to a coupling between the levels of national income and carbon dioxide emissions that has existed since the 1960s. The year 2000 marked a period of decoupling in this regard but by 2013 the economic recovery marked a rise in emissions once more. FitzGerald points to data for 2018 which shows that the total emissions of greenhouse gases remained largely unchanged from 2017, but explains that the absence of a significant rise was largely driven by a 10 per cent reduction in the electricity sector due to reduced hours at Moneypoint power station, which masked significant increases in emissions in the residential, agriculture and transport sectors. The analysis, says FitzGerald, is that
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not only have behaviours not changed significantly but that Ireland hasn’t even turned the corner in getting emissions to fall. Outlining that Ireland will fail to meet the 20 per cent reduction of greenhouse gases target for 2020, despite an estimated 7 per cent reduction in emissions driven by the Covid-19 pandemic, FitzGerald points to a gap of between 12.6 to 13.4 Mt CO2eq on the Effort Sharing Decision (ESD) target of 337.9 Mt CO2eq. “The reductions due to Covid-19 might bring that gap below 10 Mt CO2eq but we will still not meet our target and it’s important to remember that this reduction will be temporary. In this context, it’s important that investment to stimulate economic recovery must be ‘green’,” he states.
The Climate Action Plan 2019, if implemented fully, significantly changes the trajectory on emissions, explains FitzGerald but will still see Ireland fall short of the EU’s annual targets, meaning that Ireland will need to use the flexibilities allowed for on terms of land use. This, the Chair says, is more optimal than the other flexibility allowed for, the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which would allow Ireland to buy its way out of any gap to target but would not offer a long-term solution. “If we don’t meet even the current target for 2030 then we certainly won’t meet net zero carbon for 2050,” FitzGerald states. The challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Ireland comes in the face of increased ambitions both from the EU and within the new Programme for Government (PfG) for 2030.
