Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 29 March 2018
332. Deputy Margaret Murphy O'Mahony asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his plans to promote the inclusion of greenhouse gas emission reduction as an indicator for successful outcomes within Project Ireland 2040; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14526/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs part of Project Ireland 2040, the National Planning Framework will guide national development and prioritised investment over the next two decades. The National Development Plan 2018-2027 is a ten year strategy for public capital investment which will support the implementation of the National Planning Framework. Both documents have a shared set of National Strategic Outcomes, including addressing Ireland's transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient society. The National Development Plan commits funding of €21.8 billion towards climate action investments, including some €14 billion to be invested by Ireland’s semi-state companies and by the private sector. This means that almost €1 in every €5 to be spent in the framework of the National Development Plan over the next decade will be on climate action, with a strong focus on strategic investments in the areas of transport, renewable energy, grid development and interconnection, the built environment, and flood risk management, to address the significant climate change challenges that Ireland faces.
The National Development Plan funding commitments provide a clear opportunity for significant upscaling in our investments to deliver deep emissions reductions in the coming decade and to further develop and implement the National Mitigation Plan. This will be essential both in order to meet Ireland’s targets, under the draft EU Effort Sharing Regulation, for a 30% reduction in non-ETS sector by 2030, relative to 2005 levels, as well as to make significant progress towards Ireland’s National Transition Objective for 2050 to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in Ireland by at least 80% (compared to 1990 levels) and, in parallel, to pursue an approach to carbon neutrality in the agriculture and land-use sector, including forestry, which does not compromise capacity for sustainable food production.
The National Mitigation Plan is itself a living document that will be updated as on-going analysis, dialogue and technological innovation generate more and more cost-effective sectorial mitigation options. The most recent list of measures currently in place in the context of National Mitigation Plan is set out in the 2017 Annual Transition Statement, which I laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas on 8 December last. This Statement details the key measures in place in the respective sectors, the objective for each measure, estimated mitigation potential and funding information, where appropriate.
In relation to the role of outcome indicators within Project Ireland 2040, I understand that the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016 provides a legislative basis for the National Planning Framework, a monitoring process in relation to its implementation and a statutory requirement for regular reviews and updates into the future, together with the proposed establishment of an independent Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR). That National Planning Framework proposes that this new Office will have an independent monitoring role, and its functions will include providing advice to the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, to the Government as a whole and to the Oireachtas, on the implementation of the National Planning Framework under the statutory planning process, through new Regional Spatial and Economic Strategies, local authority statutory planning processes and the decisions of An Bord Pleanála, and using a new set of indicators to be developed to assist effective monitoring.
In relation to the role of greenhouse gas emissions reductions as an indicator of successful outcomes within Project Ireland 2040, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the competent authority in Ireland for the preparation and annual publication of official inventories and projections of greenhouse gas emissions and for reporting this data to the European Union and to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. A summary of the most recent inventory and projections prepared by the EPA is also included in the Annual Transition Statement as laid before the Houses.
