Mr. Brian Carroll:

I thank the Chair and committee members. I am accompanied by Mr. Martin Finucane, head of strategic energy policy at the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Ms Laura Behan from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Mr. John Muldowney, responsible for climate change and bioenergy policy at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Mr. Frank Maughan, head of climate mitigation and awareness at the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment.

I have prepared a presentation, copies of which have been provided to members, and I propose to make a brief opening statement on the Paris Agreement, the EU and Ireland's emissions targets, Ireland's national mitigation plan, the national dialogue on climate action and community aspects of the renewable electricity support scheme, as requested.

The Paris Agreement aims to hold the increase in global average temperature from pre-industrial levels to well below 2° Celsius and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° Celsius. Country pledges made by the 195 parties for 2050 exceed the warming limit of the Paris Agreement, pointing to the need for enhanced global commitment. On behalf of its member states, the EU has committed under the Paris Agreement to a reduction of at least 40% in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, to be achieved by a reduction of 43% in the emission trading scheme, ETS, sector, and a reduction of 30% in the non-ETS sector.

It is in the non-ETS sector that each member state of the EU has legally binding targets. It should be noted that Ireland's non-ETS sector is large relative to the EU as a whole, and that within Ireland's non-ETS sector, agriculture accounts for 46% of emissions, compared with 18% for the EU 28.

The latest Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, projections indicate that Ireland's emissions are to be between 4% and 6% below 2005 levels by 2020, against a 20% reduction target. There are a number of reasons for this, including our limited post-crash public investment capacity. For 2030, Ireland will have a 30% emissions reduction target in the non-ETS sector. This represents a significant challenge. To begin addressing this challenge, the Government published its first statutory national mitigation plan last July. It represents an initial step to set us on a pathway to achieve the level of decarbonisation required. The plan contains 61 measures that are in place and 17 that are under consideration, as well as 106 actions. The Government recognises that this first plan does not provide a complete roadmap to decarbonising by 2050, but begins the process of development of medium to long-term mitigation choices for the next and future decades.

This will be an ongoing process and will include the preparation of the ten-year national development plan and successive national mitigation plans at least every five years, as provided for in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015. Decarbonisation will involve fundamental societal transformation, as well as ongoing engagement with society through the national dialogue on climate action. The central objective of the dialogue is to create awareness, engagement and the motivation to act across society.

The green schools national climate change action and awareness programme is already under way and an advisory group has been established by the Minister to input into the organisation of regional and local events that will be piloted in the first half of this year. This recognition of the centrality of communities to changing our societies is fully recognised in the design of new policy measures such as the renewable electricity support scheme. Community participation and community ownership are at its core, and the recent consultation set out a number of policy options to support community involvement.

I look forward to engaging with members.