Environment, Climate and Communications | Update on meeting carbon reduction targets

To ask the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the success to date in meeting carbon reduction targets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. – Bernard J. Durkan.

For WRITTEN answer on Thursday, 15th December, 2022.

(680  Received on 12th December, 2022.)

REPLY

The Programme for Government, published in October 2020, set out a climate ambition which has since been placed on a statutory footing through the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021, which was signed into law in July 2021. The Act commits Ireland to achieve a climate neutral economy by no later than 2050, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 51% by 2030 compared to 2018 levels. The significantly strengthened legally binding framework under the Act, with clear targets and commitments set in law, will help ensure that Ireland achieves its climate goals and obligations.Within this strengthened framework, several important milestones in climate action have been reached. In November 2021, the Government published the Climate Action Plan 2021, which identifies the policies, measures and actions required to achieve our emissions reductions targets, while also setting out indicative ranges of emissions reductions across each sector of the economy. This was followed by the publication of an accompanying Annex of Actions, which sets out the detailed timebound actions that are required to drive delivery of the Plan. By the end of Q3 2022, 77% (542 of 708) of Climate Action Plan 2021 actions had been delivered on time. Following the process set out in the Act, Ireland’s first carbon budget programme and sectoral emissions ceilings were approved and introduced in 2022. These budgets and emissions ceilings set out a clear pathway for Ireland’s decarbonisation. Climate Action Plan 2023 will reflect the targets set in the carbon budgets and sectoral emissions ceilings.