Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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119. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will detail all carbon credits purchased by the State or its agencies under any scheme since 2015 to date; if the CO2 equivalent totals of such credits and the monetary costs involved will be included; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15980/23]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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For the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol (2013 to 2020), EU Member States contributed collectively to the EU’s emissions reduction targets by meeting nationally binding annual emissions reduction targets set out in the EU Effort Sharing Decision (ESD). These targets cover sectors outside the EU Emissions Trading System and Ireland has been fully compliant in every year.

The legislative framework of the ESD provides for a number of compliance options beyond direct emissions reductions, including purchasing international carbon credits and trading surplus annual emission allowances (AEAs) between Member States. This approach enables flexibility among Member States to achieve targets as efficiently and as fairly as possible.

Each individual international carbon credit and AEA corresponds to one metric tonne of CO₂ equivalent, calculated using global warming potentials.

Since 2015, for the purpose of achieving compliance under the ESD, the State has purchased 2.94 million ESD eligible international carbon credits at a total cost of €2.1 million and will shortly make a payment of €2.9 million for 4.15 million AEAs received from Slovakia. The total costs of purchasing compliance since 2015 will thus amount to €5.02 million for 7.09 million tonnes of CO₂eq. carbon credits/AEAs.