Revealed: Ireland's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases 

Dublin Airport is Ireland's largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

Dublin Airport has been named as the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in Ireland by a newly released global tracing database.

Climate Trace, founded by former US vice president Al Gore, used satellite imagery, remote sensing, artificial intelligence, and collective data science to make a database of the world’s biggest emitters of human-induced greenhouse gases.

The database includes emissions for 72,612 individual sources worldwide and was unveiled at the Cop27 climate change summit in Egypt.

Dublin Airport was Ireland’s biggest culprit at just over 1m tonnes of greenhouse gases last year, despite flights being severely curtailed during 2021 because of Covid-19 restrictions. It was followed by two cement plants, Drogheda and Ballyconnell in Cavan.

Traffic around Dublin’s roads was named as the fourth biggest emitter, followed by Limerick cement plant, Irving Oil Refinery at Whitegate in Cork, the Corrib gas field off the west coast, and the Kinnegad cement plant in Westmeath. 

Shannon Airport and Cork Airport made up the top 10 but their emissions in 2021 were significantly lower than the eight entities above them in the ranking.

Some 58 Irish assets emitted more than 61m tonnes overall in 2021, Climate Trace data showed.

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

The Permian oil and gas basin in Texas was the world’s biggest emitter last year at almost 209m tonnes, followed by Marcellus shale in eastern Ohio, and Permian in New Mexico.

Half of the 50 largest sources of emissions are oil and gas production fields and their associated facilities, Climate Trace said.

It added that the top 500 sources represent less than 1% of the total Climate Trace inventory but account for 14% of global emissions for 2021 — more than the annual emissions of the US.

Mr Gore, who has become one of the world’s leading voices on climate change since leaving US politics after his failed presidential bid in 2000, said: “The climate crisis can, at times, feel like an intractable challenge — in large part because we’ve had a limited understanding of precisely where emissions are coming from.

This level of granularity means that we finally have emissions data that enable us to act decisively.

“It also means we can prioritise efforts to achieve the deep cuts in greenhouse gas pollution we need to prevent the most catastrophic impacts of the climate crisis.” 

Meanwhile, an analysis from the Christian Aid charity claims that almost two-thirds of the gross domestic product (GDP) of African countries will be wiped out by the end of the century by the fallout from climate change.

Christian Aid's analysis claimed that based on current climate policies, where global temperature rise reaches 2.7C by the end of the century, African countries can expect to suffer an average GDP hit of -20% by 2050 and of -64% by 2100.

It added that even if global temperature rise stays within the 1.5C as set out in the Paris Agreement of 2015, African countries still face an average GDP reduction of -14% by 2050 and -34% by 2100.

Andrea Carroll, DAA Head of Environment Sustainability said: “DAA, together with our aviation partners that operate from Dublin Airport, is absolutely committed to playing our part to help Ireland meet its carbon emissions reduction targets. 

"As a commercial semi-state company, DAA has a firm target to reduce our Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 51% by 2030, in-line with Government-set Public Sector targets. 

"Additionally we are working towards a commitment to achieve Net Zero emissions from our operations by 2050, or sooner. 

"As a vital economic enabler, DAA has a clear sustainability strategy already in place to deliver key initiatives at Dublin Airport in terms of embracing new technologies, ensuring efficient aircraft operations and implementing smart environmental measures to play our part to reduce carbon emissions. 

"We remain fully committed to this, and to working collaboratively with our industry partners to achieve Ireland’s carbon reduction targets, as we endeavour to address the climate action challenge together.”

CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB