Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 1 October 2014
185. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if Ireland has signed up to the European Commission's 2020 climate and energy package's targets; the target values both interim and for 2020; if he will confirm that Ireland can and will meet these target values; if not, the reduced value target that will be met; and the fines or penalties attached to not meeting the targets. [37365/14]
View answerPursuant to the so-called EU Effort-Sharing Decision of 2009 (Decision No. 406/2009/EC), Ireland has ambitious, legally binding greenhouse gas emission reduction targets for each year between 2013 and 2020, inclusive.
Under the Decision, emissions in the year 2013 should be no more than the average of those same emissions in the years 2008 to 2010. In the year 2020, the target is that emissions should be 20 per cent below their value in 2005. The target for each of the years 2014 through 2019 is on a straight-line trajectory between the targets for 2013 and 2020. Over-achievement in any one year can be used in any other year where there is under-achievement. Furthermore, there are various other flexible mechanisms available to Member States to reach their targets such as Certified Emissions Reductions, that is, the unit of the Clean Development Mechanism as defined under the Kyoto Protocol, along with the inter-Member State trading of units.
The extent of the challenge posed by these emission reduction targets is well understood by the Government, as reflected in the National Policy Position on Climate Action and Low-Carbon Development and the General Scheme of the Climate Action and Low-Carbon Development Bill, both of which were published in April this year. The National Policy Position provides a high-level policy direction for the adoption and implementation by the Government of plans to enable the State to move to a low-carbon economy. Proposed statutory authority for the plans is set out in the General Scheme of the Climate Action and Low-Carbon Development Bill.
In anticipation of the planned legislation, work is already underway on developing a low-carbon plan - the National Low-Carbon Roadmap to 2050 - the primary objective of which will be to track implementation of measures and identify additional measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and progress the overall national low-carbon transition agenda. As I am satisfied that Ireland is on course to comply with the annual mitigation targets in the first half of the 2013 to 2020 compliance period, the immediate focus of the national low-carbon roadmapping process will be the compliance challenge in the years 2017 to 2020.
As Ireland intends to meet its greenhouse gas mitigation targets over the period to the year 2020, the issue of fines or penalties does not arise.
