Carbon emissions from top polluters on the rise
Latest EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) figures show a 5.4% increase in greenhouse gas emissions by Irish participants last year, compared to a 2.7% decline in the rest of Europe.
Around 100 heavy energy users from this country are part of the ETS — mainly power plants, large industrial facilities and airlines.
Ryanair tops the list for emissions, producing 8.43m tonnes of carbon last year — a 1m tonne increase on 2015 which was a 800,000 increase on 2014. Its annual allowance is 4.6m tonnes, meaning it must pay for substantial breaches.
The company has attributed the increases to growth in passenger numbers and argued that on a per passenger basis, its carbon output is actually falling. It said yesterday it had the “newest and greenest, cleanest fleet of aircraft” and was continuing to make improvements.
“We are investing billions of dollars in new aircraft and will begin to take delivery of the Boeing 737 Max 200 aircraft from 2019 onwards, with aerodynamic improvements which will reduce fuel consumption by up to 18%.”
Other major emitters include ESB, which produced 4.4m tonnes last year at its Moneypoint facility alone; Irish Cement, which produced 1.5m tonnes at its Limerick and Meath plants combined and Aughinish Alumina, which produced 1.2m tonnes. Aer Lingus and Norwegian Air both produced close to 1m tonnes while power companies, Synergen and Viridian, were among those that exceeded 500,000.
In total, emissions in the aviation industry grew 23% — partly due to increased traffic but also because of the addition of Norwegian Air to the Irish list. Cement industry emissions rose by 6.8%, power plants collectively by 6.6%, and the food and drink sector by 5.6%.
Under the ETS, heavy energy users get a yearly cap on the amount of carbon they can emit without penalty. If they breach it, they have to buy carbon credits from others that have come in below their cap.
Tom Ryan of the Environmental Protection Agency said Irish ETS emissions were the highest since 2008 and the scheme was not keeping them in check. “The increase in emissions is a disappointing indicator that the price of carbon remains too low for the trading system to have the desired impact on emissions in Ireland,” he said.
Carbon prices fluctuate but it currently costs around €4.86 per tonne. Critics of the system say the price would need to be €25 per tonne to act as an effective disincentive to emission growth.
That would entail radically revising the allocations — which cover 31 countries and 11,000 participants — or artificially creating a shortage of credits to push prices up.
Mr Ryan stressed Ireland’s commitments to dramatically reduce carbon emissions by at least 80% compared to 1990 levels by 2050.
“In order to deliver on our national policy position, we must break our dependence on fossil energy infrastructures. This will take planning, investment and time,” he said.
The ETS was set up in 2005 when emissions from Ireland — excluding airlines — totalled 22.43m tonnes. That fell to 15.77m by 2011 — a trend attributed largely to the recession and downturn in production — but it is now back up to 17.73m after four years of annual increases.
