Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 27 April 2023
139. Deputy Steven Matthews asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications if he will report on the work his Department is doing to reduce emissions from the energy sector in the context of our climate action targets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19150/23]
View answerClimate Action Plan 2023 builds on the previous climate action plans and is the framework through which the government intends to meet the legally-binding, economy-wide carbon budgets and sectoral ceilings agreed in July 2022.
Emissions must be reduced in the electricity sector by 75% and to achieve this, we will facilitate a large-scale deployment of renewables, as well as enabling the electrification of other technologies. This includes:
• an acceleration of the delivery of onshore wind to 9GW, solar to 8GW, and offshore wind to at least 5GW
• supporting at least 500MW of local, community-based renewable energy projects and increased levels of new micro-generation and small-scale generation
• phasing out the use of coal and peat in electricity generation
Emissions in the Built Environment sector must reduce by 45% and we will increase the energy efficiency of existing buildings by expanding our retrofitting programme, and put in place policies to deliver zero-emissions new builds.
Key targets include:
• retrofitting the equivalent of 120,000 dwellings to BER B2 by 2025, and 500,000 dwellings by 2030
• installing up to 0.8TWh of district heating capacity by 2025, and up to 2.7TWh by 2030 – enough to meet 10% of energy demand
• installing heat pumps in 45,000 existing dwellings and in 170,000 new dwellings by 2025, increasing to 400,000 and 280,000 respectively by 2030.
Three Taskforces have been established in my Department to accelerate delivery of our ambitious targets and to ensure interdepartmental coordination.
