Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 31 May 2018
2. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his plans to replace the National Mitigation Plan under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015. [23936/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy question is about the replacement for the national mitigation plan. It is not working and that is not just my view. It is not getting us to where we need to go to. An Taisce has stated it is fundamentally flawed and that it should be withdrawn. Friends of the Earth has stated it is not fit for purpose. Stop Climate Chaos has stated it has to be radically reviewed. What action will the Minister take to redraft the plan or reinvigorate it? As it is not working, we all have to take action on the issue.
Meeting Ireland's EU targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and 2030 will be extremely challenging. The latest projections for greenhouse gas emissions, published by the EPA this morning, indicate that emissions from those sectors of the economy covered by Ireland's 2020 targets could be between 0% and 1% below 2005 levels by 2020 in the context of a target that they should be 20% below their 2005 levels. While this is deeply disappointing, it is not surprising, given the recent pace of economic growth and the consequent increases in emissions from the agriculture and transport sectors, in particular. The projected shortfall in our targets is further exacerbated by the constrained investment capacity in the past decade due to the economic crisis.
For 2030, the recently agreed EU effort sharing regulation sets out binding annual greenhouse gas emission targets for each member state for the period 2021 to 2030. Ireland’s target under the regulation will be a 30% reduction in 2005 levels of emissions by 2030. That is where must focus our efforts to ensure that at the absolute minimum we meet our 2030 target.
To meet these targets, I published Ireland's first statutory national mitigation plan. It provides a framework to guide investment decisions by the Government in domestic measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The purpose of the plan is to specify the policy measures required to manage Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions at a level appropriate to making progress towards our long-term national transition objective as set out in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015, as well as to take into account existing EU and international obligations on the State in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The plan very explicitly defined the scale of the challenge facing Ireland in decarbonising and declared itself to be a first step and not a complete roadmap to achieve the national transition objective to 2050; rather, it began the process of development of medium-term to long-term options to ensure we would be well positioned to take the necessary actions in the next and future decades. The plan is a living document which is being implemented and updated on an ongoing basis. In that sense, the issue of replacing it does not arise, although I will shortly publish an update on climate mitigation policy to coincide with the Empowering Communities for Climate Action event on 20 June which will reflect the significant policy developments since the national mitigation plan was published, in particular with the publication of the national development plan.
Additional information not given on the floor of the House.
Building on the national mitigation plan, the publication in February of the national development plan will lead to a significant step change in funding available for climate action in the next decade. Reflecting the strong commitment of the Government on this issue, almost €22 billion will be directed, between Exchequer and non-Exchequer resources, to addressing the transition to a low-carbon and climate resilient society. In addition, the national development plan allocated a further €8.6 billion for investments in sustainable mobility. This means that well over €1 in every €5 spent under the national development plan will be on climate mitigation and this capital investment will enable us to deliver a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the period to 2030.
The key investment priorities in the national development plan that my Department will take forward include energy efficiency upgrades of 45,000 homes per annum from 2021 and providing support for a major roll-out of heat pump technologies; delivering energy upgrades to BER 'B' level in all public buildings and a minimum of one third of commercial buildings; implementing the new renewable electricity support scheme to deliver an additional 3,000-4,500 MW of renewable energy, with the initial focus on shovel ready projects which could contribute to meeting our 2020 targets; the roll-out of the support scheme for renewable heat and national smart metering programme; transitioning the Moneypoint plant away from coal by the middle of the next decade; having at least 500,000 electric vehicles on the road by 2030 with additional charging infrastructure to cater for planned growth; and a €500 million climate action fund, which I announced yesterday, to leverage investment by public and private bodies in climate action measures.
Both the national mitigation plan and the national development plan explicitly recognise that the reliance solely on Exchequer expenditure schemes is neither affordable nor adequate to meet the scale of the challenge to be addressed and climate mitigation action will require a targeted balance between Exchequer-supported expenditure, taxation measures, regulation and behavioural change. In certain cases, taxation policy may have a stronger role to play in changing individual or business behaviour and investment decisions, including harnessing non-Exchequer finance.
Carbon tax, in particular, has a critical role in climate mitigation policy and the national mitigation plan commits the Department of Finance to completing a review in 2018, with a view to setting a long-term trajectory for the evolution of this tax. Clear long-term signalling by the Government on the future evolution of the tax is vital, as well as an examination of what other changes to the taxation regime could be considered that would assist with the achievement of climate targets. The low emission vehicle task force is bringing forward proposals in that regard.
As regards significant regulatory change, the national development plan commits the Government to no new non-zero emission cars to be sold in Ireland post-2030, with no NCT certificates to be issued for non-zero emission cars post-2045. There is also to be a transition to a low emission urban bus fleet, including electric buses, with no diesel-only buses purchased from 1 July 2019.
In terms of ongoing climate mitigation policy development, the European Union requires that we produce a draft national energy and climate plan by the end of 2018, with the final plan to be developed by the end of 2019. This represents a further opportunity to build on the national mitigation plan and the national development plan to ensure Ireland moves to a pathway of long-term decarbonisation. I am required, under the 2015 Act, to bring forward a new national mitigation plan at least once every five years. The latest date by which this must happen is, therefore, July 2022.
From the response I am led to believe things are actually worse than I thought. We are nowhere near where we should be in tackling climate change. The Minister has said the national mitigation plan is a living document. It is a dead document. I do not mean to be negative, but we have reached the carbon cliff I feared when the climate action legislation was being passed through the House three years ago. The targets included in the plan are not binding. We are not even going to make a 2% reduction when we should be reducing carbon output by 20% by 2020. The Minister and his officials are now saying we will hopefully reach this point by 2030. The facts are that agricultural emissions are projected to increase by 45% by 2020. Transport emissions will increase by 10% to 12%. The SEAI warns that the continued use of coal, peat and oil means that the carbon intensity is 32% higher than in other OECD countries. Where is the energy mix? I do not hear any mention of the replacement of fossil fuels in the Minister's answer. Will he lay out what will displace fossil fuels?
The figures are deeply disappointing. It is clear from the EPA's report that we face an enormous challenge to meet our 2030 targets. Energy policies already announced should mean a 40% reduction in emissions by 2030. There will be increases of 7% in the area of housing, 17% in transport and 6% in agriculture. We have to look specifically at each of these areas now. In the transport sector diesel is a huge problem for us. It is broken down into several challenges, including commercial freight. Last week I launched the first CNG filling station in Ennis for Clean Ireland. Some 80 such filling stations will be rolled out across the country. We have to consider CNG as a transition fuel to biofuels. City travel is another challenge. As part of the first ever clean air strategy that we hope to publish soon, we are considering a system similar to that which will be introduced today in Hamburg which imposes a ban on older diesel cars in the city centre. We have to look at mechanisms to drive the changes we need to make if we are to reach our 2030 targets.
It is clear from the Minister's reply that we are not moving quickly enough. There has been a succession of pilot schemes, but we are only scratching the surface. The national mitigation plan 2017 restates the Government's commitment to replace fossil fuels, but it is now relying on natural gas. The Corrib gas field has less than a ten-year lifespan. We will be relying on the use of imported gas and onshore wind energy. Where is the plan for offshort wind energy projects? It is not being developed. There is no feed-in tariff for solar energy projects; one cannot be connected to the grid to supply surplus solar energy supplies. A company in County Laois has 40 other companies lined up to feed into the grid, but it cannot gain access. I have previously outlined the need to switch to biogas in agriculture. We are scratching at the surface and I am asking the Government to up its game. All of society needs to up its game. We need clear action plans to make the transition necessary. We have lost three, four or five years and now need to play catch-up and make a serious start in moving from fossil fuels to renewable energy resources.
I reject that comment. A total of €1 out of every €5 spent under the national development plan will be spent on climate related projects. The national planning framework specifically targets brownfield sites. We have a 65% loading of wind energy on the grid, the highest anywhere on the globe. The Moneypoint plant will be decommissioned by 2025. Ireland will be one of the first countries in Europe to take coal out of the system. Smoky coal will be banned by the end of this year. Again, this one of the first countries in the world to do so. Peat will be taken out in power generation by 2030. The support scheme for renewable heat will I hope go live in the coming weeks. It will support the use of biomass and biogas. The broadband plan will be built out in the coming months, which will have a direct impact on transport emissions. We are discussing a ban on the use of non-zero emission cars from 2030. We are banning the use of diesel in new buses from 2019. The climate action fund, announced yesterday, has been allocated €500 million. The smart farming programme which targets a 10% reduction in emissions is being scaled up this year. We have genotyped 1 million beef animals in the past few years. The warmth and well-being deep retrofit pilot scheme is being expanded nationwide through the warmer homes scheme. The carbon tax report will be presented before the budget. We have introduced benefit-in-kind relief on electric vehicles. We have reduced toll fees. We have increased supports for taxis and Government services and business to convert to the use of electric vehicles.
We are improving the charging infrastructure. We have established Bord na Móna BioEnergy. The Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill is going through the House.
I thank the Minister.
We have Luas cross city, the BusConnects programme and the public sector energy efficiency scheme, which means that the public sector can now hold on to the energy savings we make. We are replacing public lighting throughout the country. We are rolling out compressed natural gas, CNG, filling stations throughout the country. We have established local authority climate action offices.
I thank the Minister.
We have implemented the Kigali protocol and funding for that. We are rolling out brown bins throughout the country-----
Minister-----
-----and we are addressing the issue of food waste. All of this has happened in the past two years since I was appointed Minister.
While there is no limit as such on time for priority questions, I would appreciate it if everybody kept somewhere within the limit. I understand the Minister is trying to get a message across and I am reluctant to interrupt him.
Question No. 3 is in the name of Deputy Dooley and it has been agreed that Deputy Kelleher will take the question.
