Dr. Eimear Cotter:

I thank the committee for inviting the Environmental Protection Agency to discuss the implementation of the national mitigation plan. I am joined by my colleagues, Dr. Matthew Crowe, director of the office of evidence and assessment, and Dr. Stephen Treacy, a senior scientist. We welcomed the publication of the national mitigation plan and are supporting its implementation through the actions assigned to us and through our broader climate functions and responsibilities, which are listed in our submission. We now see a robust policy framework in place through the national mitigation plan, the national adaptation framework and the national development plan. We can now move to implementation and action as we address climate change.

I will give a high-level overview of greenhouse gas emissions trends before handing over to Dr. Crowe. Overall, greenhouse gas emissions in Ireland are increasing and that is making achievement of our decarbonisation goals ever more difficult. In 2016, the latest year for which we have numbers, our greenhouse gas emissions increased by 3.6% and we recorded increases across all the main sectors of the economy. Agriculture, for example, increased by 2.7%, transport by 4.1%, and energy industry emissions - mainly power generation - increased by 6%. When we look out to 2020 and our commitments to the EU effort-sharing decision, we are moving off the pathway and trajectory required to meet those targets. In fact, in 2016 we exceeded our annual binding limits for greenhouse gas emissions. Those figures and the national emissions projections that we publish every year show that we are faced with challenges in terms of meeting those targets and our aspirations under our national policy position. If we are to move on to a sustainable trajectory, we need to implement all of the measures that are in our national mitigation plan.