Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Among the significant findings of the UCD research commissioned by the Irish Green Building Council is that, first, the urban environment or the built environment is responsible for more than 30% of our current emissions, equal to areas such as agriculture or energy and transport which get much more public attention. Second, the research shows that, even with the retrofitting programme the Government is planning, as the operational emissions of the built environment reduces, the embodied carbon required to build new buildings, homes, roads and infrastructure will actually significantly increase. What the Department needs to do, therefore, is to absorb the research in the report and work with members of the Opposition because we share the same objective here. There is no disagreement that as we work through the legally binding targets that will affect the Department of the Minister of State, for example, we should have a clear roadmap to ensure everything is done not only to make homes more energy efficient, but to dramatically reduce the embodied carbon in new buildings, particularly homes. I would like to hear more information from the Minister of State as to how exactly that bit of the carbon emissions reduction targets will be met.

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