Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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204. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when the Climate Action Plan for 2022 will be published. [7594/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The climate ambition in the Programme for Government has been placed on a statutory footing through the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021, which was signed into law in July 2021. The Act commits Ireland to achieve a climate neutral economy by no later than 2050, and provides for a 51% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 2018 levels.

The significantly strengthened legally binding framework under the Act sets clear targets and commitments in law, including embedding a process of carbon budgeting and sectoral emissions ceilings, and will help ensure that Ireland achieves its climate goals and obligations in the near and long-term. Establishing these requirements in legislation places a clear obligation on this and future governments for sustained climate action.

To deliver on the ambition set out in the Act, the Government published the Climate Action Plan 2021 last November. The 2021 Plan identifies the actions necessary to achieve our emissions reductions targets for each sector of the economy, based on their respective starting points, and the relative challenges and benefits, of reducing emissions. The indicative ranges of emissions reductions for each sector, as set out in the 2021 Plan, will become specific ceilings in the Climate Action Plan 2022, following the legal adoption of carbon budgets and sectoral emissions ceilings. My Department will, in the coming months, engage proactively with the public, key stakeholders, and other Government Departments to prepare the 2022 Plan which I expect to publish it in Q4 of this year.