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    Irish Government announces Climate Action Plan to reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions 51% by 2030

    Nov. 9, 2021
    Energy efficiency targets 56-percent housing emissions reduction and retrofitting 500,000 homes by 2050
    Photo credit Wikimedia Commons
    Photo credit Wikimedia Commons

    The Irish government has devised a new EUR 125 billion Climate Action Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the country by 51% by 2030 and place the nation on track to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

    Taoiseach Micheál Martin, who attended the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, said the plan will set climate action at the heart of all the government plans and policies over the next decade.

    “Our new climate legislation, carbon budget and annual climate action plans provide for clear targets, actions and accountability," Martin said.

    Specifically, the government has called for an increase in the use of renewable energy to 80% by the end of the decade and the construction of an offshore renewable energy plant to tap into the potential of the country’s maritime area.  Moreover, it calls for the development of carbon capture and storage to remove emissions from the atmosphere. 

     Here are the sector-wise goals set under the Climate Action Plan:

     Residential sector-related plans:

    ·        Reducing housing emissions by 56% in the next decade

    ·         Retrofitting 500,000 homes by 2030 and offering a low-cost loan scheme and tax incentives to retrofit homes

    ·         Formulating a support scheme for homeowners to sell excess energy produced at home, back to the national grid

    ·         Devising a small-scale generator scheme to enable communities, businesses and farmers to generate electricity

    Moreover, the plan also includes the phasing out of fossil fuel usage for heating water and space in new buildings and promoting the use of low-carbon technology in commercial buildings.

     Transport sector-related plans:

    ·         Reducing transport-based emissions by 42% to 50% by 2030 through drastic changes

    ·         Expansion of rail services, walkways and cycling infrastructure to facilitate 500,000 daily sustainable journeys by 2030

    ·         Expansion of the electric bus and rail fleet (introducing 1,500 electric buses by the end of the decade)

    ·         Increasing the use of biofuels in the sector

    ·         Increasing the number of electric vehicles to 1mn by 2030

     Agriculture sector, land and forestry-related plans:

    ·         Reducing agriculture-based emissions by 30% over the next decade

    ·         Reducing the use of chemical nitrogen fertilizer to 325,000 tons per annum

    ·         Increasing organically-farmed land five-fold to 350,000 hectares

    ·         Improving animal feed and breeding

    ·         Reducing land and forestry emissions by 37% to 58%

    ·         Launching a new program in 2023 to increase afforestation

     Enterprise sector-related plans:

    ·         Reducing emissions by up to 41% by 2030

    ·         Launching a Climate Toolkit 4 Businesses to facilitate firms to calculate their carbon emissions

    ·         Encouraging businesses to invest in decarbonization technologies

     Additionally, the government will ensure data center growth to be in line with the sectoral emissions ceilings and renewable energy targets.

    About the Author

    EnergyTech Staff

    Rod Walton is senior editor for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 14 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.

    Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    He can be reached at [email protected]. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids.

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.