Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 13 July 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Reduction of Carbon Emissions of 51% by 2030: Discussion (Resumed)

Photo of Richard BrutonRichard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for those fantastic presentations. The question I am interested in was also raised by Dr. Caulfield. If it is true that 20 cars are idle for every one that is moving, there is a massive gain to be had if we can develop a shared vehicle model. I am just trying to get an understanding of how we can radically shift that. That seems to be the easiest thing we could do. Granted, it does not cut out journeys and bikes and so on, but are there good models of doing that rapidly? It has all those benefits Dr. Daly mentioned. I have done a bit on the circular economy and this is where the big gains are to be had.

I am interested in the comments on the housing sector. I live on a street where all the homes are probably four-bedroom and I do not think anyone has more than one or two empty nesters. The same thing about how we share vehicles may well apply to how we share our buildings. A building, typically, is issuing twice what a car is in emissions. I am thinking of that concept of redesigning our entire supply chain. That leads me to a question on Dr. Daly's presentation. She mentioned that she has done a low energy demand scenario and had the humility to say all models are wrong but some are useful. I am interested in what is radically different in that. What are the infrastructures we need to prepare and what are the polices that would change? The converse of that comes from her finding that with the 50% reduction, the marginal abatement curve is now €1,000 per tonne.

Everyone recognises that the previous 30% target was less ambitious. With it, 75% of the measures paid for themselves. The top was only €300 per tonne. This is €300 in perpetuity throughout the life of the vehicle, building or whatever is involved, which is scary. What policies would the 51% require to be introduced, going beyond our discussion of transport? That is a wake-up call to people who need to start designing alternatives. I would like to hear more about that.

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