merrion street

The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment today (10 November 2016) noted the publication by the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) of a report on Ireland’s Provisional Greenhouse Gas Emissions in 2015. The EPA has reported total national emissions at 59.84 million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent in 2015 which is 3.7% higher than emissions in 2014. According to the Agency, these figures indicate that Ireland will be in compliance with its 2015 annual limit (set under the EU’s 2009 Effort Sharing Decision) but on course to exceed the limit in 2016 or 2017. The Agency also cautioned that - “we haven’t yet achieved a decoupling of economic growth from emissions.”

Acknowledging the EPA report and commentary, the Minister said:
“I am fully aware of the challenge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with our 2020 and other international commitments and these latest EPA projections reinforce the extent of that challenge. Nonetheless, I am satisfied that the national legislative and policy framework is in place, via the 2014 National Policy Position on Climate Action and through the 2015 climate legislation, to advance actions on climate change mitigation. The National Policy Position provides the high-level policy direction for the adoption and implementation by Government of mitigation plans to enable the State to move to a low-carbon economy by 2050, and statutory authority for those plans is now set out in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act, 2015.”

The Minister added:
“Under the 2015 Act, I intend to make a draft National Mitigation Plan (NMP) available for public consultation by the end of the year followed by submission of a final plan to Government for approval by June 2017. Importantly, the preparation of the NMP is statutorily designed to be a whole-of-Government approach to tackle greenhouse gas emissions. In particular, Ministers with responsibility for the largest emitting sectors namely, agriculture, transport, electricity and the built environment, have been requested by Government to develop mitigation measures for inclusion in the National Plan.”

Development of the NMP is being guided by the long-term vision of low carbon transition as set out in the National Policy Position. Work is well underway and relevant departments are currently developing sectoral mitigation measures in tandem with statutory environmental assessments and economic analysis, during which measures will be further refined and prioritised. The first iteration of the NMP will place particular focus on tracking implementation of measures already underway, putting in place the necessary actions to address the challenge to 2020 and also on planning ahead to ensure that appropriate policies and measures are in place beyond that.