Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 December 2017
429. Deputy Gerry Adams asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will report on the position in his Department's strategy statement to focus on the implementation of Ireland's climate change commitments. [50385/17]
View answerHigh Level Objective 5 of my Department's Statement of Strategy 2016-2019 sets out that my Department will 'enable the State, within EU and global frameworks, to pursue and achieve transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable economy, underpinned by a secure and competitive energy supply, in the period to 2050’. This High Level Objective identifies a number of outcomes for both climate and energy policy objectives under my Department’s remit.
Implementation on Ireland’s climate change commitments can be measured against Ireland’s emissions reduction targets under the EU Effort Sharing Decision, the implementation of domestic policy commitments arising from the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 and in the context of related commitments set out in the Programme for Partnership Government.
The 2009 Effort Sharing Decision 406/2009/EC established binding annual greenhouse gas emissions targets for EU Member States for the period 2013 to 2020. For the year 2020 itself, the target set for Ireland is that emissions should be 20% below their level in 2005. This will be Ireland’s contribution to the overall EU objective to reduce its emissions by the order of 20% by 2020 compared to 1990 levels. Ireland’s target is jointly the most demanding 2020 reduction target allocated to EU Member States under this Decision, which is shared only with Denmark and Luxembourg.
The latest Environmental Protection Agency report on greenhouse gas emissions, published on 27 November, indicates that Ireland complied with its annual limits in the period 2013-2016. However, projections indicate that Ireland is expected to exceed its annual limits from 2017 onwards and that emissions could be between 4% and 6% below 2005 levels by 2020. The projected shortfall to our targets in 2020 reflects both the constrained investment capacity over the past decade due to the economic crisis, and the extremely challenging nature of the target itself. In fact, it is now accepted that Ireland’s 2020 target was not consistent with what would be achievable on an EU wide cost-effective basis.
In order to comply with Ireland’s 2020 targets, Ireland will need to avail of a number of flexibilities. These include the carry-over of surplus allowances from earlier in the period as well as the use of credits already purchased through the Kyoto Protocol Flexibility Mechanisms and carried forward from 2008-2012 which can be offset against the deficit. If this does not fully address any potential deficit, further allowances could be purchased if necessary. The final cost of purchasing additional allowances will depend both on the quantum and price of allowances to be purchased at the time.
Ireland's first statutory National Mitigation Plan, which I published in July of this year, provides a framework to guide investment decisions by Government in domestic measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Plan sets out what Ireland is currently doing, and is planning to do, to further the national transition objective as set out in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act, 2015. This Plan sets out over 70 individual measures and 106 related actions to reduce emissions in four key sectors (Electricity Generation; the Built Environment; Transport; and Agriculture, Forestry and Land Use). Although this first Plan will not provide a complete roadmap to achieve the national transition objective to 2050, it begins the process of development of medium- to long-term options to ensure that Ireland is well positioned to take the necessary actions in the next and future decades.
I am also currently finalising Ireland’s first National Adaptation Framework. The Framework will provide a clear strategy for Government Departments and the Local Government sector to prepare and implement adaptation plans and strategies within their own areas. Individual Ministers will be required to develop sectorial adaptation plans for areas under their remit and local authorities will be required to develop local authority climate change adaptation strategies.
The 2015 Act also requires that I lay before that Houses of the Oireachtas an Annual Transition Statement, no later than 10 December each year, setting out progress on the implementation of mitigation and adaption policy measures adopted by Government, details on emissions inventories and projections, and a report on compliance with Ireland’s obligations under EU law and relevant international agreements. The Annual Transition Statement also includes reports by relevant Ministers in the Seanad and Dáil.
