Climate change plan says EU targets will be missed
Five years after it was due, the Government this week published a National Mitigation Plan on climate change, outlining how the Government will meet stringent EU greenhouse emissions targets for 2020 and 2030 and achieve a low carbon economy by 2030. The plan is a requirement of new climate change laws enacted two years ago.
Four main areas have been outlined in the document – the built environment, transport, agriculture and forestry and electricity. Commenting on the plan, Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment Denis Naughten said: “It is clear that there are no easy options to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions on the scale required in the coming decades.” Green Party leader Eamon Ryan criticised the document saying it was not a plan, but a consultation document. He said energy policy had “been frozen in a lack of interest.” Ireland’s capital investment programme is also heavily skewed towards road building rather than public transport, which will be difficult to sustain in the transition to a low carbon economy.
The plan states that Ireland will not meet its 2020 EU target of a 20% reduction in emissions, with a more realistic target of 6% being set. The plan describes as “extremely challenging” many of the changes that will have to take place if Ireland is to meet the EU’s 2030 targets of a 30% reduction in emissions, compared to 2005.
