Emissions targets for 2030 fall short of the 51 per cent reduction required by law and will have to be revised upwards, including in agriculture, according to Marie Donnelly, chairwoman of the Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC).
“The targets that came out in July do not add up to a 51 per cent reduction by 2030. Our calculations are 43 per cent. More work has to be done. Targets will have to be raised including in agriculture in due course,” she told an energy conference in Dublin on Thursday.
The Government adopted a 25 per cent cut in agriculture in July, after protracted negotiations between Coalition party leaders, which was lower that the higher-level recommendations set out by the CCAC.
She accepted a lot of groundwork had been put in place on a climate plan, five-yearly carbon budgets and sectoral ceilings.
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Ms Donnelly highlighted, however, the case of Irish households which use 7 per cent more energy than the average home in Europe and generate 58 per cent more carbon dioxide.
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Speaking after addressing the Irish District Energy Association conference, Minister for Climate Eamon Ryan accepted the need for more ambitious targets as proposed by Ms Donnelly.
Addressing the gap in emissions targets, which he described as “a black box that has to close”, was complex; especially when it came to land use.
He highlighted a problem with the extent to which planted forestry could be accounted for in terms of carbon credit and when that could be applied. But he had no doubt this would be resolved.
‘Utter nonsense’
The emphasis, Mr Ryan believed, should now be on speed of delivery across all sectors rather than targets — notably in transport, agriculture and energy, while the Climate Act meant Ministers could be held to account. He strongly rejected the view that the energy crisis had derailed the country’s climate plans and hampered putting in place a new climate action plan by the end of the year.
He believed such a suggestion was “utter nonsense” and typical of misinformation about the energy crisis; likewise, the view that Ireland should now pursue renewed gas exploration when it did not have the North Sea and there was “a 50/1 outside bet of finding gas at €100 million a pop. Why would people think that gives us any security?”
The source of the problem was not the green transition; the answer, said the Minister, was to increase ambition in embracing renewable energy and to “go big” on district heating, retrofitting buildings and installing heat pumps in domestic households.
