Rising demand for electricity could challenge the State’s efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, say regulators.
Ireland must cut greenhouse gas – mostly carbon dioxide or CO2 – by 42 per cent to meet EU targets set under the bloc’s effort-sharing regulations, meant to spread the burden of combating climate change fairly.
The Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) warns in a new report that achieving national emissions ceiling targets without an “unprecedented” renewables ramp-up or cutting total electricity demand “could be extremely challenging” for the State.
According to the commission’s report, which details the fuel mix used by energy companies, carbon emissions from Irish electricity fell 9.3 per cent to 234 grammes per kilowatt hour, the unit in which electricity is sold, from 2021 to 2022.
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However, those figures include the use of so-called green certificates, or guarantees of origin, bought by Irish energy companies from European generators who produce surplus renewable electricity.
This allows the Irish companies to count renewable electricity generated and used elsewhere in the European Economic Area (EEA) as their own.
The CRU notes that the carbon intensity of electricity generated here is 296 grammes per kilowatt hour when the green certificates are not counted.
Green certificates are not taken into account when national emissions are calculated. Suppliers use them in yearly reports to customers where they give details of the fuels used to generate the electricity they sell.
This allows them to bolster the contribution of renewables or to claim that the electricity they sell is 100 per cent green.
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However, the CRU and the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (Asai) are reviewing this practice, a move that could force a change on electricity companies when the pair complete this work next year.
The commission’s report shows that suppliers told consumers that renewables accounted for 57.6 per cent of the electricity generated here last year.
However, that includes the contribution from imported green certificates. The actual quantity of electricity generated from renewables in 2022 was less than 40 per cent.
The commission’s warning on electricity emissions is partly based on the likelihood that consumption will increase sharply in coming years, requiring the use of more conventional generators.
It comes just a day after accountants PwC warned that the Republic of Ireland was one of several countries that would struggle to meet its climate change targets.
Earlier this year, the State’s Environmental Protection Agency calculated that Ireland would cut emissions by 29 per cent by 2030, far short of its EU-mandated target.
