merrion street

The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and the Environment, Richard Bruton T.D. today (Wednesday, the 19th of December 2018) published the first draft of Ireland’s National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP). It will now be submitted to the European Commission.

A final plan will have to be submitted in twelve months’ time. From then on, all member states will be required to outline their energy and climate policies in detail each year, for the period 2021 to 2030, and onwards to 2050.

The production of a draft National Energy and Climate Plan is a requirement under EU Law. Seperately, Minister Bruton has secured government approval to develop an all of government climate action plan, which will have as a central ambition to make Ireland a leader in responding to climate change. The Minister is currently working with colleagues across government to develop new initiatives across residential, enterprise, transport, waste and the public service. This Plan will be published early in the new year.

Publishing the draft NECP, Minister Bruton said, “The purpose of the NECP is to chart a sustainable path for Ireland in a decade when it is projected that the number of households will grow by 380,000 (+19%) and GDP by 30%.

The draft NECP sets out the impact of many initiatives which are being put in place;

• - The investments in the NDP mark a significant shift and will deliver a cumulative 22MT reduction in CO2. This represents one third of the emissions reduction we need to achieve.
• - Renewables in our power system will rise from 30% to at least 55% with a broader range of technologies likely to be deployed, e.g. offshore wind, solar, biomass
• - Coal and peat will be removed from electricity generation which will almost halve the emissions from the electricity sector.
• - Penetration of electric vehicles into our transport fleet will build to around 20%.
• - Energy improvements in newly built homes and energy refits in existing homes will mean that 40%-50% of homes will have high build energy ratings
• - At least 170,000 homes will supported to switch out oil-fired boilers to heat pumps and solar panels
• - The support scheme for renewable heat (SSRH) will enable the small and medium businesses to change their heat generation away from fossil fuels to renewable generation technologies. 

“However, this is not enough and ambition will need to be stepped up in all these areas and many others besides. The analysis in the draft plan demonstrates that policies in place to date will not fully deliver on our emissions commitments, even taking into account flexibilities which have been granted to Ireland which will not be cost free.”

“The draft NECP highlights once again the urgency of the work we are doing in developing our all of government plan to make Ireland a leader in responding to climate change. We need to act now, across all sectors of society to step up our response. I am working with government colleagues across the board to identify tangible actions and secure commitments to close the gap. I will publish this all of government plan early in the new year.”

Notes to Editors

The European Union has agreed a key piece of legislation, the Regulation on the Governance of the Energy Union & Climate Action, which sets out the planning and reporting requirements for energy and climate policies out to 2050.

It sets out that each Member State must adopt a National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) which outlines its energy and climate policies in detail for the period from 2021 to 2030 and looks onwards to 2050. The NECP is a consolidated plan which brings together energy and climate planning into a single process for the first time.

The link to draft NECP plan is available here.

A final plan must be sent to the Commission by 31 December 2019.