Decline in Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions not enough to hit targets
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Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions were at their lowest level for three decades last year, but we are still “well off track” from meeting our EU and national targets, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The EPA will today publish its provisional figures for greenhouse gas emissions for 2023, which shows a reduction of 6.8% compared to the previous year, with reductions in almost all sectors.
It comes as new data showed that June was the 12th consecutive month of global temperatures reaching 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, driving home the urgent need for countries to reduce their carbon emissions.
“Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2023 were at their lowest level in over three decades, as a result of the largest reduction in emissions outside of recession,” EPA director general Laura Burke said.
"We see the impact of more renewables and interconnection powering electricity, less fossil fuel use in home heating, reduced nitrogen fertiliser use in agriculture, and more biofuel in transport.”
The EPA said that 55m tonnes of carbon dioxide were emitted last year, with agriculture accounting for 37.8% of emissions. This was followed by transport (21.4%) and the energy industries (14.3%).
In terms of transport, emissions here actually rose marginally by 0.3%. The EPA said that an increase in electric vehicles and biofuel use partly offset a 3% increase in the vehicle fleet nationally.
The number of electric vehicles on the road — 62,000 battery electric and 48,000 plug-in hybrids — is at 56% of the Climate Action Plan target for 2025 and just 12% of the amount the Government wants on the roads by 2030.
“The impact of electric vehicles in reducing transport emissions is still very small due to the low number in the vehicle fleet, but they are projected to contribute substantially to emissions reductions towards the latter half of the 2020s,” it said.
Last year saw the largest annual reduction in emissions from electricity generation, dropping by 21.6%.
“This was due to a 12-fold increase in the amount of imported electricity (9.5% of electricity supply in 2023), in combination with an increase in the share of renewable energy to 40.7% in 2023,” it stated.
Despite these reductions, however, Ireland remains well short of its targets both set nationally and at EU level.
The EPA said that greenhouse gas emissions in 2023 were only 10% below 2005 levels, and way behind Ireland’s EU Effort Sharing reduction commitment of 42% by 2030.
Under the Climate Act 2015, greenhouse gas emissions are only 7.8% lower than in 2018, well off the target of 51%.
“We need to achieve an extremely challenging annual reduction of 8.3% for each of the years 2024 and 2025 if Ireland is to stay within the first carbon budget,” the EPA said.
Meanwhile, the Copernicus Climate Change service said that June 2024 was warmer than any previous June for which data was available.
“June marks the 13th consecutive month of record-breaking global temperatures, and the 12th in a row above 1.5C with respect to pre-industrial,” its director Carlo Buontempo said.
"Even if this specific streak of extremes ends at some point, we are bound to see new records being broken as the climate continues to warm. This is inevitable, unless we stop adding GHG into the atmosphere and the oceans.”
ActionAid Ireland CEO Karol Balfe said the data was a “terrible warning” that climate action has to move into “a much higher gear”.
“If we want to avert runaway climate breakdown, the wealthiest polluting countries need to stop fuelling the fire and agree to pay to clean up the havoc that they are unleashing on the rest of the world,” she said.
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