Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

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

Ms Sharon Finegan:

That is an important distinction because what the additional measures scenario does is that it identifies policies that have already been identified to bring about the savings, but not necessarily realised. This would be a key message, and was a key message for the agency last week in publishing those projections, that in order to realise those benefits we need to see full implementation. It is important to set the target and to identify the measures through which we are going to achieve those targets, but it is the implementation that will realise the savings, which will then be seen in the inventories. The inventories is the historic piece. The projections is looking ahead to what we have quantified will be the outworking of the policy once it has been implemented. Implementation is the key piece and that is an important distinction between the with existing measures and with additional measures. The with additional measures have identified the steps the Government is going to take but they have not yet been implemented. That is important when you consider the step up to 51%.