Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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187. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he plans to submit an updated National Energy and Climate Plan before the 30 June deadline. [27424/23]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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My Department is responsible for the cross-Government coordination and development of the National Energy and Climate Plan with the first NECP being developed and submitted to the European Commission in 2019.

Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 states that each Member State must finalise its latest notified integrated NECP by June 2024 with a draft submitted in 2023 to allow the Commission adequate time to analyse the draft Plan.

Since the publication of the 2018 Regulation, new climate and energy regulations and targets have been introduced, which have dramatically changed the scope of the NECP. Many of these changes in targets have been as a result of the unjustified Russian aggression against the sovereign state of Ukraine which caused an energy crisis across the EU and a subsequent EU-wide effort to accelerate the roll-out of renewable energy supply. For example, the Renewable Energy Directive was reviewed to increase the renewable energy target from 32 to 40%, and on 30 March 2023 a new provisional agreement was reached, increasing the target to a minimum of 42.5%, but aiming for 45%, by 2030. The Energy Efficiency Directive Recast (EED recast) has recently been agreed and similarly will impact the content of the NECP.

The NECP is a complex exercise involving multiple Departments and Agencies. At this stage the Department is instituting the necessary tools and governance arrangements to ensure all the required data is gathered in an accurate and timely manner. The Department aims to deliver the draft as close to the timelines set in the Regulation as practicable, but with the pace of change of energy targets, meeting these deadlines will be challenging for all EU Member States.

We are aiming to publish a draft NECP later this year prior to running a public consultation and carrying out the necessary environmental assessments. Regardless of the continuously evolving targets and complexities, I am hopeful that we will meet the deadline of June 2024 for publication of the final NECP.