Mattie McGrath
Ceist:776. Deputy Mattie McGrath asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his policy on fossil fuel divestment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30597/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 10 July 2018
Ceisteanna (776)
Freagraí scríofa
The Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill seeks to amend the NTMA Acts to have the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund divest from fossil fuels. The Bill is progressing though the legislative process and is due before the Dáil this Thursday, 12 July. It is being brought to the Dáil by Department of Finance.
The Government and I are committed to reducing Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions. Our 2015 Energy White Paper on Ireland's Transition to a Low Carbon Energy Future sets out a vision of a low-carbon energy system where emissions from the energy sector will be reduced by between 80% and 95% by 2050, compared to 1990 levels. The reduction will require a significant increase in the share of renewables in primary energy supply. The government has made a definitive decision to take coal out of power generation by 2025 and peat out before 2030. Ireland will be one of the first countries in Europe to do so. We will be one of the first countries in the world to ban smoky coal later this year.
This time last year I published Ireland’s first statutory National Mitigation Plan, an initial step to set Ireland on a pathway to achieve the deep decarbonisation required by 2050.
The National Mitigation Plan covers greenhouse gas emissions in the Electricity Generation, Built Environment, Transport, and Agriculture, Forest and Land Use sectors. For each sector, the Plan sets out the sectorial policy context, the greenhouse gas emissions trends for each sector, the opportunities and challenges, mitigation measures currently in place and under development, and specific actions to take forward work within each sector. The National Development Plan specifies that €1 in every €5 spent over the next decade in public funding is to be spent on climate –related activity.
Work is also being carried out to examine the potential economic impact of various carbon tax scenarios. A report is due to be published on this in advance of the forthcoming budget. The National Development Plan sets out the Government’s ambition that no new non-zero emission cars would be sold in Ireland post 2030. In addition, Budget 2018 introduced a range of measures to drive uptake in electric vehicle ownership including continuation of Electric Vehicle Purchase Grant and VRT reliefs, grants for home chargers and a 0% rate of benefit in kind for battery electric vehicles. My colleague, the Minister for Tourism, Transport and Sport has introduced grant incentives for the uptake of electric vehicles in the Small Public Service Vehicle sector and discounted tolling charges for electric vehicles. Government continues to increase support to extended energy efficiency programmes managed by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), resulting in less reliance on imported fossil fuels.
Question No. 777 answered with Question No. 764.