Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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As I mentioned, two targets were set in the early part of the last decade. One was to meet our renewables targets and the second was to meet our climate emissions reduction targets. In the case of the latter, we are between 12 million and 13 million tonnes short of meeting our target. Achieving compliance only became an issue in recent years following the downturn and recession. By 2011, due to actions take by previous administrations, we were on course to meet our climate target, but in the early to middle years of the last decade, we fell behind. The earlier reductions meant we were not out of compliance. It was only in 2018-19 that our lack of action caught up with us and we were no longer in compliance. Under the European legislative mechanisms, we were able to purchase carbon units as part of meeting our target. That was allowable under the mechanism.

A budget of €3 million was allocated this year. We will not spend the vast majority of that for a variety of reasons, the main reason being that compliance runs right into 2020. We have to wait and see what will happen as the Covid pandemic may result in a significant reduction in our emissions in 2020. The Department had started to purchase credits and credits worth about €300,000 were purchased this year from the €3 million estimated fund. However, due to the Covid pandemic, we have put a hold on it. We are asking the Environmental Protection Agency what our emissions projections are for this year as we may not have to use the full allocation in the Estimate.

This should not be seen as a sign that we are all right on the climate side. We are significantly behind and miles away from our 2020 targets. We are not on track to meet our 2030 targets, as the EPA and other organisations have stated. An underspend in this area should not be interpreted as a sign that we can take our foot off the pedal. One of the few benefits of the Covid pandemic is that this year's emission figures may mean we will avoid having to spend carbon funds to balance our account this year.