Carbon budgets 'unachievable' due to delays 

The Climate Change Advisory Council said that Ireland failed to meet its 2020 target of a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions under EU sharing rules. It had 'particular concern' about inaction on transport and heat sectors. Picture: Lukas Schulze/Getty Images

Current delays in implementing climate change planning means that Ireland will be unable to meet its future emissions reduction targets, with the so-called 'carbon budgets' rendered unachievable.

That is according to the Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC), which said that Ireland failed to meet its 2020 target of a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions under the EU sharing rules, and will now have to effectively borrow emissions allowances from other member states to make up its deficit.

Inaction on transport and heat sectors are of "particular concern", the CCAC said, adding that agriculture, as the largest sectoral contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in Ireland, "is not on a sustainable low-carbon path".

Carbon budgets were announced in October 2020, and unveiled last October. They include all greenhouse gases in each five-year cycle and will allocate emissions ceilings to the likes of motorists, households, farmers, businesses, and industry.

The carbon budget for the period 2021-2025 aims to reduce emissions by 4.8% on average annually for five years, while the second budget from 2026-2030 will look to up that annual reduction to 8.3%.

'Significant gap' between policy and delivery

There is already a "significant gap" between climate action policy and climate action delivery, including delays in the 2019 Climate Action Plan, missing the 2020 emissions reduction targets, and the lack of a long-term emissions reduction strategy, the CCAC said.

Under Ireland's recently enacted Climate Act, a 51% reduction in emissions is a target for 2030.

The CCAC said the 2021 Climate Action Plan has now to be implemented "in full and on time".

Chair Marie Donnelly said: "Ireland’s failure to meet its targets is due to not matching the ambition of plans with timely and complete delivery of actions. For example, many of the measures in the original 2019 Climate Action Plan have been delayed. 

"The time-lag between policy development, implementation, and actual emissions reduction means that unless Government takes action now, we will be unable to meet our targets in future years. 

"The implementation of the carbon budgets published by the council in October will be unachievable if this pattern within Irish climate policy is not overcome.”

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