Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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36. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the steps he will take to ensure Ireland reaches its CO2 emissions targets in all areas including energy production; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32128/16]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The extent of the challenge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in line with our EU and international commitments, is well understood by Government, as reflected in our 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 Act.

In accordance with Section 4 of the Act, and in line with responsibilities assigned to me as Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, I intend to make a draft National Mitigation Plan (NMP) available for public consultation by the end of the year followed by submission of a final plan to Government for approval by June 2017. The preparation of the National Mitigation Plan is statutorily designed to be a whole-of-Government approach to tackling greenhouse gas emissions.  In particular, each Minister with responsibility for the largest emitting sectors (namely, agriculture, transport, electricity and the built environment) is required by Government to develop sectoral mitigation measures for inclusion in the Plan. 

Development of the NMP is being guided by a long-term vision of low carbon transition as set out in the National Policy Position, based on:

- an aggregate reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of at least 80% (compared to 1990 levels) by 2050 across the electricity generation, built environment and transport sectors; and

- in parallel, an approach to carbon neutrality in the agriculture and land-use sector, including forestry, which does not compromise capacity for sustainable food production.

The ultimate objective of successive five-yearly NMPs is to incrementally achieve this low-carbon transition vision by 2050. In that context, the NMP 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 first iteration of the NMP will place particular focus on tracking implementation of measures already underway, putting in place the necessary measures to address the challenge to 2020 and also on planning ahead to ensure that appropriate policies and measures are in place beyond that. Work on this task is being co-ordinated by the National Mitigation Plan Steering Group, chaired by my Department, and is well underway by all Departments concerned. In particular, Departments with responsibility for the four largest emitting sectors are currently developing sectoral mitigation measures in tandem with Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Appropriate Assessment (AA) processes and financial analysis during which measures will be further developed and prioritised.

As stated earlier, I intend to make a draft NMP available for public consultation before the end of the year so as to ensure the views of all stakeholders are considered in taking Ireland's first NMP forward for approval and implementation.