Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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93. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if documents (details supplied) in relation to the climate action plan will receive a response; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18139/20]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Transport energy demand reduction through active travel, remote working and increased public transport in addition to electrification of transport will be key to reducing our transport emissions. The programme for Government commits to a fundamental change in the nature of transport in Ireland. It includes a range of measures across cycling and walking, greenways, transport infrastructure, public transport, rail, buses, taxi road transport and safety. This is recognition that new strategies will be needed to sustain a reduction trajectory that will increase over time to meet an economy-wide average 7% per annum fall in emissions to 2030. The strategies to deliver these emissions reductions will require genuine consultation, detailed planning, organisation and adequate mechanisms for funding and incentives, as well as the gradual build-up of their impact. The transition to alternatively-fuelled vehicles and away from fossil-fuelled vehicles is a necessary step-change to effect a substantial reduction in transport greenhouse gas emissions, particularly in the passenger car fleet which accounts for 52% of transport emissions, or approximately 10% of Ireland’s total annual greenhouse gas emissions.

The Climate Action Plan sets out a pathway for the uptake of electric vehicles over the next decade based on analysis to identify key emissions abatement technologies.  It is widely expected that, over the next number of years, the combination of improvements in technology, reductions in vehicle purchase prices, increasing driving ranges and model availabilities, coupled with Government incentives and new investment in the recharging network will maintain the current positive policy environment under which electric vehicle sales have risen steeply in recent years, albeit from a low base.

The Climate Action Plan therefore sets targets for electric and low emissions vehicles by 2030 as follows:

- Increasing the number of passenger EVs on the road to 840,000 (split between 550,000 BEVs and 290,000 PHEVs)

- Reaching 95,000 electric vans and trucks

- Procuring 1,200 low-emissions buses for public transport in cities

The Plan expects the bulk of the shift to EVs (and the resulting emissions reduction) to occur in the second half of the next decade, when prices have fallen in line with technology development, and purchasing behaviour patterns have changed. These targets are challenging but indicative of the scale of the transformation required if Ireland is to reach its legally binding emission ceilings in future years.

Achieving the Climate Action Plan targets will likely require a suite of policy and regulatory interventions at national and EU level.  Action 79 of the Climate Action Plan committed to the development of a roadmap on the optimum mix of regulatory, taxation and subsidy policies to drive significant ramp-up in passenger EVs and electric van sales from very early in the next decade.  The Electric Vehicle Optimum Policy Pathway Group, established to take forward this work, is due to present its final report to me shortly.

As set out in the Programme for Government, the Government is also fully committed to introducing a ban on the sale of fossil-fuelled internal combustion engine cars and to the targets set out in the Climate Action Plan for electric and low emissions vehicles by 2030. The General Scheme of the Climate Action (Amendment) Bill, published in December 2019, proposes to include a provision to ban the sale of fossil fuel cars by 2030 and to stop the granting of NCTs by 2045 to address the commitments in the Climate Action Plan. Work on the drafting of this legislation is ongoing in my Department.

Since 2009, EU legislation sets mandatory emission reduction targets for all new passenger cars and vans registered in the EU. The legislation is the cornerstone of the EU’s strategy to improve vehicle fuel economy and has driven car manufacturers to develop innovative energy efficient technologies. The regulations have iteratively been made more stringent, progressively decreasing EU fleet-wide average emissions along with increasing the availability of lower emission vehicles across the EU.

Regulation (EU) 2019/631 sets CO2 emission performance standards to ensure that, by 2025 and 2030, the average emissions from new cars will be 15% and 37.5% lower, respectively, compared to 2021 levels.  The Regulation is also structured to incentivise manufacturers to increase the production of zero- and low-emission vehicles.

Achievement of these targets by manufactures will make an important contribution to both the EU and individual Member State emissions reductions targets for 2030. Due to the absence of vehicle manufacturing here, Ireland will remain strongly dependent on continued action at an EU level in this respect.  Notwithstanding this, Member States may introduce additional domestic policies and measures and impose more ambitious targets for specific sectors. The Climate Action Plan imposes specific and differentiated targets for individual sectors, based on an analysis of the most cost-effective split of emissions reductions across the economy in order to meet Ireland's emissions reduction targets for the 2021 - 2030 period. The Plan targets a 45% - 50% reduction in transport sector emissions by 2030 relative to existing projections.

The new European Green Deal proposes that, by June 2021, the Commission will revise the legislation on CO2 emission performance standards for cars and vans, to ensure a clear pathway from 2025 onwards towards zero-emission mobility.