Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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1113. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his views that his Department will meet their EU renewable and emissions reductions targets by 2020; if he will provide a detailed account of how close we are as a State to meeting these targets. [34809/17]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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​The release of the latest projections of greenhouse gas emissions by the Environmental Protection Agency illustrates the enormous challenge facing Ireland to reduce our emissions. These projections indicate that emissions from those sectors of the economy not covered by the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), including the transport sector, could be between 4% and 6% below 2005 levels by 2020. Though not unexpected, given the welcome return to economic growth in Ireland and the corresponding rise in transport needs, it nevertheless confirms that Ireland's greenhouse emissions continue to track broader trends in the economy and serves to underline the difficult decisions ahead of us as we try to reduce emissions in line with our international commitments.

Ireland has a collective emissions reduction target for each year between 2013 and 2020 under the 2009 EU Effort Sharing Decision with the ultimate goal of emission reductions of 20% below their level in 2005 by 2020. Ireland's target is one of the most demanding; only shared with those in Denmark and Luxembourg. The projected shortfall to our national targets in 2020 reflects both the constrained investment capacity over the past decade due to the economic crisis, and the extremely challenging nature of the target itself. In fact, it is now accepted that Ireland's 2020 target was not consistent with what would be achievable on an EU wide cost-effective basis.

The EU Renewable Energy Directive set Ireland a legally binding target of meeting 16% of our energy demand from renewable sources by 2020. Ireland is committed to achieving this national target through meeting 40% of electricity demand, 12% of heat and 10% of transport from renewable sources of energy. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has calculated that 9.1% of Ireland's overall energy requirements in 2015 were met from renewable sources and 5.7% of transport energy demand.

My Department aims to meet our sectoral renewable energy targets for transport mainly through the increased use of sustainable biofuels, with electric vehicles also making a contribution. As the Deputy may be aware, an increase to the current biofuel obligation rate is envisaged and a public consultation on future incremental increases is expected to take place later this year.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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1114. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the details of estimates of the cost to the State of missing our 2020 targets in transport for renewables and emissions reductions targets. [34810/17]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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As the Deputy is aware, the responsibility for emissions reduction is a collective one and Ireland's emission targets are national and not sectoral by nature. It is clear, however, that Transport has an important role to play in reducing the national emissions profile.

The legislative framework governing the EU's 2020 emissions reductions targets includes a number of flexibility mechanisms to enable Member States to meet their annual emissions targets, including provisions to bank any excess allowances to future years and to trade allowances between Member States. Using our banked emissions from the period to 2015, Ireland is projected to comply with its emission reduction targets in each of the years 2013 to 2018. However, our cumulative emissions are expected to exceed targets for 2019 and 2020, which will result in a requirement to purchase additional allowances. While this purchasing requirement is not, at this stage, expected to be significant, further analysis will be required to quantify the likely costs involved, in light of the final amount and price of allowances required.

The EU Renewable Energy Directive set Ireland a legally binding target of meeting 16% of our energy demand from renewable sources by 2020. Ireland is committed to achieving this national target through meeting 40% of electricity demand, 12% of heat and 10% of transport from renewable sources of energy. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has calculated that 9.1% of Ireland's overall energy requirements in 2015 were met from renewable sources and 5.7% of transport energy demand. The SEAI analysis also estimated that this avoided over €286 million of fossil fuel imports. Similar to most other Member States, Ireland has sought to increase renewable energy in the transport sector primarily through the use of sustainable biofuels alongside a contribution arising from electric vehicles.

In a document entitled Ireland’s Energy Targets – Progress, Ambition and Impacts (published in April 2016) the SEAI estimated that the cost to Ireland of not meeting our overall renewable energy targets may be in the range of €65 million to €130 million for each percentage point Ireland falls short of the overall 16% renewable energy target.