Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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113. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will conduct a review of Ireland's carbon footprint when implementing the plan in the Climate Action Plan 2019 for 1 million electric vehicles. [13282/21]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Climate Action Plan (CAP) 2019 decarbonisation trajectories were informed by comprehensive emission modelling previously carried out by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) for the National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP).  Further analytical work was fed into CAP 2019 development by the project consultants McKinsey. The ongoing preparation of CAP 2021 is informed by this knowledge, as well as further analytical work by my Department and a range of State transport bodies.

Current Programme for Government commitments represent a significant step-up in ambition over CAP 2019, with a target of 7% annual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to 2030. This step-up in ambition requires accelerated action across sectors; in transport, implementing measures to meet this target presents many challenges.

Accelerating the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) plays a key role in meeting climate targets. According to NECP projections, avoided emissions from uptake of EVs are significant: almost 10 MtCO2 in cumulative emissions from petrol and diesel vehicles would be avoided between 2021 and 2030. Emissions from EV charging are included in these projections, but not the significant vehicle or battery manufacturing emissions. Further, when the emissions from electricity generated to charge vehicles (at the average emissions rate from electricity generation) are taken into account, the cumulative emissions savings fall to approximately 7.8 Mt CO2. As a share of Ireland’s energy demand, EVs are projected to rise from 0.1% in 2021 to 8.4% in 2030.