Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 29 June 2023
29. Deputy Neasa Hourigan asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will outline any work or reviews undertaken by his Department on the carbon emissions impact of strengthening the Irish export sector as outlined in his Department's White Paper on Enterprise 2022-2030; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31159/23]
View answerThe White Paper on Enterprise, published last December, articulates the direction of enterprise policy over the next decade. One of the key priorities set out in the White Paper , is integrating decarbonisation and net zero commitments with enterprise policy. This will include incorporation of carbon abatement as an objective for the Department’s enterprise Agencies, equal to and alongside employment and value-added. This will require the adoption of carbon budgeting in our enterprise development agencies and the introduction of carbon assessment as standard in project and grant evaluation.
Under the Programme for Government, Ireland has committed to reducing emissions by 51% across all sectors of the economy by 2030 and to become net zero by 2050. These commitments are enshrined in law under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021. Accordingly, all sectors of the economy must remain within defined five-year Carbon Budgets which align with our climate ambitions outlined above. In particular, I have responsibility to reduce industrial on-site emissions by 35% by 2030 arising in our manufacturing sector, the majority of which would comprise of exporters.
Carbon abatement will become a core objective for our enterprise agencies and new industrial development will be need to be less reliant on fossil fuels. Enterprise policy will help Irish-based firms fully realise the potential of the global green economy, supporting them to become leaders in related innovation.
During 2022, my Department implemented a pilot Climate Appraisal Model, which factored the cost of carbon emissions into the assessment of enterprise agency investment projects. My Department is currently evaluating the pilot in advance of implementing the Model on a permanent basis for all relevant projects. This evaluation process will also apply to new greenfield investments, requiring the pipeline of new developments in Ireland to take account of the carbon budgeting processes of the relevant agency. We will ensure that we are attracting the quality and diversity of new foreign investments that supports our national climate action ambitions. The implementation of the Climate Appraisal Model will be overseen by my Department and the enterprise agencies, with appropriate data collection and reporting identified to drive the required reforms.
Crucially, Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland will work with their existing clients to decarbonise their operations, while continuing to facilitate growth. They will also seek to develop and support new clients in low-carbon sectors. We will ensure that decarbonisation commitments are integrated into existing monitoring and reporting, alongside established criteria on employment creation and economic value added.
As part of the implementation of the White Paper, my Department will lead a process to translate national carbon budgets and the sectorial emissions ceilings into operational carbon budgets for the enterprise development agencies. My Department will map emissions inventory data to the existing client base of each agency. Both agencies have commenced implementing actions to measure and track the carbon impact of clients with a view to ensuring legally binding emissions targets are met.
The ambition to decarbonise our economy is transformative and will require significant investment and adoption of low and no carbon technologies across all sectors. Government will support investments contributing to the green and sustainable transformation of the Irish economy through a number of instruments. The Green Transition Fund is part of Ireland’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP). The total budget for the fund is split into two streams, the Enterprise Emissions Reduction Investment Fund (€30m) and the Climate Planning Fund for Business (€25m). These were launched in 2022 and will run to 2025. The Enterprise Emissions Reduction Investment Fund targets export manufacturing companies using fossil fuels and incentivises them to adopt CO2 abatement technologies in their processes. The Climate Planning Fund for Business is targeted at companies of different sizes and at different stages of engagement, to support companies to accelerate their awareness of CO2 abatement opportunities, build decarbonisation capabilities and put in place sustainability plans. Individual project funding under the Green Transition Fund is capped at €1 million, and therefore for large projects where sizeable abatement can be achieved, Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland will also have recourse to the Environmental Aid Scheme to support such investments.
