Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

National Strategic Objective, NSO, 8 relates to the transition to a low carbon and climate-resilient society. The next decade is critical in order to address the climate crisis and we have significantly stepped up our climate ambition by committing to reduce our overall greenhouse gas emissions. The Climate Action Plan 2023, which was published in December 2022, sets out the actions, measures, policies and plans to meet the emission reduction targets required by our carbon budgets and sectoral emission ceilings. The plan contains actions Ireland must implement to meet our emissions reduction targets and to achieve net zero emissions no later than 2050.

Over the period to 2030 an additional €5 billion of the expected €9.5 billion in additional carbon tax receipts will be invested in energy efficiency. Strategic investment priorities for the energy sector include supporting the delivery of offshore renewable energy, retrofitting homes and the installation of heat pumps. In September, my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, announced the provisional results of the third renewable electricity support scheme, RESS auction. RESS 3 builds on the successes of the first two onshore auctions. The volumes procured represent a 12% increase on current renewables, keeping Ireland on the right trajectory to achieve the targets set out in the Climate Action Plan 2023. In 2022, 27,200 home energy upgrades were supported by grant schemes and this year we have seen almost 39,000 home energy upgrades to the end of October. This is an increase of 112% on the same period of last year and above the overall target of 37,000 for 2023. More than 5,000 hectares of Bord na Móna peatlands were rehabilitated last year as part of the enhanced decommissioning, rehabilitation and restoration scheme. That was funded via the national recovery and resilience plan as part of the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility. This is one of the largest peatland rehabilitation projects in Europe with more than 10,000 hectares rehabilitated to date. Strategic investment priorities for transport include the transition to a low or zero emissions public bus fleet. To this end, 172 new electric buses for public service obligation, PSO, fleets were delivered in 2022, including 107 fully electric vehicles and 24 hybrids.

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