Danger Zone: Ireland’s emissions pathway

The Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (DCCAE) released the terms and conditions for the Support Scheme for Renewable Heat (SSRH) on 7 August. DCCAE has recently been active in the environmental space, announcing the following since the beginning of June: €500 million Climate Action Fund; Sectoral Planning Guidelines for Climate Change Adaptation; Cabinet approval of the Renewable Energy Support Scheme (RESS); Sectoral Planning Guidelines for Climate Change Adaptation; and €453,000 of department funding for Local Environmental Initiatives. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) also announced a domestic solar grant.

These announcements followed an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) forecast in May that Ireland would barely make a dent in its overall emissions by 2020 on 2005 levels. Earlier in the year, the Climate Action Network (CAN) ranked Ireland second-worst among European Union nations for action on fighting climate change.

In this week’s blog, we consider Ireland’s performance against a range of relevant energy and climate oriented indicators.

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Low carbon generation
Conall Bolger

Conall Bolger

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