Working from home a 'powerful' way public can help reduce emissions, says EPA

One practical way of reducing emissions would be for more people to either carry on working from home, or return to working from home, says the Environmental Protection Agency. Stock picture.

The public needs to play a transformational part to help Ireland meet its emission reduction targets, say the authors of a new report which warns that the country’s emissions are rising rather than falling.

One practical way of reducing emissions would be for more people to either carry on working from home, or return to working from home, says the Environmental Protection Agency.

In its report — Ireland’s Provisional Greenhouse Gas Emissions — the EPA warns that total national greenhouse gas emissions in 2021 are estimated to have risen by 4.7% on 2020 levels.

This takes them to 61.53m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2eq), an increase on the 59.86 Mt CO2eq emissions in 2019.

The rise was driven by the increased use of coal and oil for electricity generation and increases in both the agriculture and transport sectors.

EPA climate change programme manager Mary Frances Rochford said: “We have the plans, we have identified the actions that need to be taken and we have identified that we need to do these and more in order to meet the targets that we have set. We just all need to get on with it.”

The rise was driven by the increased use of coal and oil for electricity generation and increases in both the agriculture and transport sectors.

EPA senior manager Stephen Treacy said: “The provisional greenhouse gas emission estimates for 2021 are a cause for concern.”

On working from home, he said: “Any demand reduction measures like that are obviously very powerful because you don’t need to mitigate emissions that don’t arise in the first place.”

The report concludes: “That big emissions reductions did not occur in 2020/21 despite intense societal disruption highlights both the scale of the climate change challenge and the fact that transformational change will be needed for the targets to be met.

“While measures which restrict activity may be part of the solution, far more important for 2030 targets will be measures that decouple economic growth from emissions growth.

“If trips can be avoided through better planning or homes are highly efficient, the environment will benefit.

“Moving away from fossil fuels improves air quality, something observed during the Covid-19 lockdown periods where traffic volumes were reduced,” he said.

In its report — Ireland’s Provisional Greenhouse Gas Emissions — the EPA warns that total national greenhouse gas emissions in 2021 are estimated to have risen by 4.7% on 2020 levels.

What it describes as “provisional estimates” of greenhouse gas emissions indicate Ireland could exceed its 2021 annual limit set under the EU’s effort sharing regulation by 2.74 Mt CO2eq.

Emissions in the energy industries sector rose by 17.6% or 1.53 Mt CO2eq in 2021. This is attributed to a tripling of coal and oil use in electricity generation as gas-fired plants were offline for repairs and maintenance during the year.

Electricity generated from wind, due to there being less wind, and hydro fell by 16% and 20% respectively in 2021.

Agriculture emissions rose by 3% last year, driven by among other things increased fertiliser nitrogen use and an increased numbers of livestock including dairy cows, other cattle, sheep and pigs.

Total milk production rose 5.5% in 2021, with milk output per cow also increasing 2.5% Greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector rose by 6.1%, largely driven by ending Covid travel restrictions on car and public transport usage.

On a positive note, the report says that by the end of 2021 there were 47,000 electric vehicles in Ireland, which was ahead of the government target. The fact that greenhouse gas emissions from the residential sector fell 4.9% is also a positive.

However, their decrease was driven by a combination of reduced time in the home due to the ending of Covid restrictions, a milder winter, higher fuel prices and a possible stockpiling of heating oil from 2020. 

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