Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 28 April 2021
202. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Transport the estimated investment needed in the transport sector to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by one percentage point; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21207/21]
View answerTo help tackle our climate challenge, I am strongly committed to achieving substantial carbon abatement within the transport sector. Accounting for a little over one fifth of Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions, there can be no question, but that transport must feature strongly in contributing towards the national decarbonisation effort.
As the Deputy will be aware, the National Development Plan (NDP) underpins all State investments. The NDP is currently undergoing review, as such, the scale of investment in the transport sector is also being reassessed. Meanwhile, my Department recently launched the National Investment Framework for Transport in Ireland for public consultation, seeking views on investment priorities and ensuring transport investment is aligned with the Government’s overarching objectives. In addition, through the development of the forthcoming Climate Action Plan (CAP) 2021, significant analytical and modelling work is underway to identify the cost of delivery of the various measures required to achieve a 51% reduction in national emissions by 2030, as has been committed to in the Programme for Government.
In advance of finalising CAP 2021 it is difficult to attribute meaningful costs to sectoral emission savings. Nevertheless, what is clear is there will be significant costs, and the extent of these and the question of where they fall, will be strongly determined by precise type of mitigation action taken, the scale of the action and the timing of its deployment. Analysis previously undertaken by my Department suggests that there are a variety of different ways of achieving an indicative 1% reduction in transport emissions, each with significantly different corresponding cost. For example, it was estimated that replacing c.57,000 older combustion engine vehicles with electric vehicles could yield approximately a 1% emission savings at a cost to the State of c.€630m if there were continuation of current subsidy levels. A 100% increase in rail passenger kilometres or a 300% increase in bus passenger kilometres could also respectively mitigate 1% of transport emissions. Both of those potential measures would require significant capital investment in the region of €3-5 billion as well as additional annual current funding for operating costs. This analysis is indicative only and the corresponding costs are approximations, and it should be noted that the costs of potential measures would vary over time, often in line with changes in technological development and market forces.
My Department and its agencies are continuing to work with colleagues across Government in preparing the forthcoming CAP 2021, and I expect that the agreement of that Plan and of the direction of future measures will provide greater clarity on the expected costs associated with reducing transport emissions in line with the national climate objective.
