Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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81. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the methodology to ensure that public capital projects and public procurement avail of every opportunity to minimise carbon footprint and avail of opportunities for sequestration of carbon; and if he is planning to put in place a reporting format to ensure that it will happen. [55586/21]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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My Department has already introduced a range of measures which consider the climate and environmental impact of public capital projects at key points in the development of those projects.

The recent NDP Review included an assessment of the impact that each of the Exchequer-funded measures contained in the NDP is likely to have on climate and environmental outcomes.

The Public Spending Code requires every public investment project with a value above €20 million to conduct a full analysis on all the potential costs and benefits associated with that project - including a quantitative assessment of the net impact on greenhouse gas emissions the proposal will have.

As projects proceed to detailed design and construction stages both operational and embodied carbon must be considered when determining the carbon footprint of a construction project. For the majority of building projects the operational carbon emitted will eclipse the embodied carbon in the construction phase. The Building Regulations require all new buildings to achieve a near zero energy rating.

Determining the embodied carbon of a building project is a complex, iterative process repeated at key stages in the project’s development. It must take into account all of the materials used in the construction phase, where they are sourced, how often they will be replaced over the lifetime of the building and their potential for re-use or re-cycling.

The analysis must also consider materials that have a high embodied carbon footprint but which can significantly reduce the operational carbon emissions over the life-cycle of the building. The means to measure and verify embodied carbon in a consistent fashion is, therefore, a key dependency which has been identified in Actions 190 - 192 of the recently published Climate Action Plan.

Once developed, these metrics will enable project teams to set appropriate carbon targets for individual projects, to verify they are being met and reward those proposals which can improve on those targets. The Office of Government Procurement is contributing to the work that is ongoing to develop these metrics so they may be deployed throughout the Capital Works Management Framework.