Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am committed to achieving substantial carbon abatement across Ireland's society and economy, or helping our society to do that, and securing an efficient and low emission transport system. The programme for Government climate action commitments represent an important step up in ambition, seeking to fundamentally change the nature of transport in Ireland and achieve a 7% average annual emissions reduction to 2030.

Targets and measures set out in the existing 2019 climate action plan will not be sufficient to meet this Government's increased ambition. Therefore, work is under way to frame a new 2021 climate action plan. This work will determine the nature and scale of additional measures required to achieve the step up in emissions reduction within the transport sector.

Key targets for electric vehicles and biofuels already represent ambitious goals, but we need to do more right across the transport sector. Continued investment, increasing capacity and improving access and quality across a range of sustainable mobility options and better managing the demand for transport will need to play a critical role.

When agreed, the 2021 climate action plan will chart a course to reduce transport greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 in line with our programme for Government commitment. This will advance us towards the ultimate goal nationally and at EU level, which is to reach a near zero emissions mobility system by 2050.

Work to reduce emissions continues apace even as we prepare the new plan. The Deputy will have seen evidence of this in yesterday's announcement of the set of interim actions that we are committed to implementing even while the climate action plan 2021 is being developed. It will ensure continued momentum of our emissions reduction effort across the transport sector.

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