Written answers

Tuesday, 24 May 2016

Department of Environment, Community and Local Government

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Photo of Ruth CoppingerRuth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

57. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the measures his Department has taken to keep global warming below 1.5° Celsius, as agreed at the 2015 United Nations Paris climate change conference. [11330/16]

Photo of Michael MoynihanMichael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

212. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government to account for Ireland’s non-emissions trading system greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets for 2020 and the possibility of attaining such targets; the penalty that will apply for each percentage point that Ireland is short in reaching these targets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11218/16]

Photo of Bernard DurkanBernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

263. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government how he will achieve internationally set carbon reduction targets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11866/16]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 57, 212 and 263 together.

For each year between 2013 and 2020, Ireland has a greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction target under the 2009 Effort Sharing Decision (ESD) No. 406/2009/EC. For the year 2020 itself, the target set for Ireland is that emissions should be 20 per cent below their value in 2005. This is jointly the most demanding 2020 reduction target allocated under the ESD and one shared only by Denmark and Luxembourg. The 2013 target is based on the average of emissions for the years 2008-2010. The target for each of the years 2014 through 2019 is on a straight-line trajectory between the targets for 2013 and 2020, and surpluses in one year can be used to cover deficits in any subsequent year. The average incidence of these targets is a 12% reduction relative to 2005.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published in March 2016 projected emissions for 2020 which indicate that Ireland’s emissions at that stage could be in the range of 6-11% below 2005 levels. On a cumulative basis, Ireland will have a deficit of between 4 and 12 Megatonnes Carbon Dioxide Equivalent (MtCO2e). The projections suggest that Ireland may have a cumulative deficit of units in 2018 or 2019. Some of this deficit can be addressed by means of the retirement of units carried forward from the 2008-2012 period, and some additional purchases may be required depending on the outturn. It is not possible to quantify these at present, having regard to both the quantum and price of carbon units to be purchased at the time.

A Member State demonstrating compliance with an annual target retires Annual Emissions Allocations (units from the Kyoto Protocol Flexible Mechanisms) approximately 18 months after the year end, so it is unlikely that any expenditure required will occur before 2020 at the earliest.

The extent of the challenge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in line with our EU and international commitments, is well understood by the Government, as reflected in the National Policy Position on Climate Action and Low Carbon Development, published in April 2014, and now underpinned by the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 which was enacted in December 2015. The National Policy Position provides a high-level policy direction for the adoption and implementation by Government of plans to enable the State to move to a low-carbon economy by 2050. Statutory authority for the plans is set out in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015.

In accordance with Section 4 of the Act, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government must submit a National Mitigation Plan to Government for approval by June 2017 at the latest. Work is well underway on the development of the National Mitigation Plan, the primary objective of which will be to track implementation of measures already underway and identify additional measures in the longer term to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and progress the overall national low carbon transition agenda to 2050. The first iteration of the National Mitigation Plan will place particular focus on putting the necessary measures in place to address the challenge to 2020 but also in terms of planning ahead to ensure that appropriate policies and measures will be in place beyond that.

The ultimate objective of successive National Mitigation Plans is to incrementally achieve this low carbon transition vision by 2050. In that context, the National Mitigation Plan will have regard to Ireland’s obligations under the current 2009 Effort Sharing Decision, the Paris Agreement and any likely future EU and international obligations that may arise, including new national targets to be agreed under the 2030 climate and energy package.

The Paris Agreement sets out a long term goal to put the world on track to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees. In this regard it is noted that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been tasked with evaluating what will be the specific policy implications of this goal with a special report to be published in 2018. Notwithstanding this, the overall outcome of the Paris Conference means that the long-term objective that Ireland has already established in the National Policy Position, and that is now underpinned by the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015, namely to pursue substantial decarbonisation of the energy, transport and built environment sectors as well as pursuing neutrality in the land sector, will now be undertaken within a broader international context.

This means that the more ambitious actions that will be required over time can be taken on the basis of shared experience and cooperation with other States and regions, in the knowledge that all countries will be moving in the same direction, crucial for a small open economy like Ireland’s that competes in global markets.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.