Budget must help households cut emissions, says advisory council
The Climate Change Advisory Council said that, despite progress in retrofitting and energy upgrades in recent years, the emissions from residential buildings rose by 4.9% last year. File photo
The Government must boost supports for home retrofitting, heat pumps, and solar panels to cut emissions and reduce energy costs, and must target council houses in particular, a key climate body has urged.
With the Budget just a few weeks away, the Climate Change Advisory Council has made several recommendations around the built environment sector in Ireland, the only sector that saw emissions increase in 2024.
“Government must urgently take action to increase the availability of grants for households focused on the uptake of heat pumps and maintain the level of grants for the installation of solar PV,” council chair Marie Donnelly said.
“This will not only help achieve our climate targets, but it will also reduce energy costs for consumers and improve the warmth of people’s homes.
“In addition, the council has previously said that the roll-out of smart meters must be better utilised to help customers to save money, change consumption patterns, and reduce emissions.”
The Climate Change Advisory Council said that, despite progress in retrofitting and energy upgrades in recent years, the emissions from residential buildings rose by 4.9% last year.
Furthermore, emissions from commercial and public buildings rose 7.9% and these sectors are all projected to exceed their sectoral emissions ceilings.
In its review, which also looks at the industrial and waste sectors, the independent body said the Government must take urgent action to finalise the Heat Bill this year.
It said this will give regulatory certainty to investors in district heating, which allows for the use of low-carbon and renewable energy sources to decarbonise the provision of heat and hot water.
Alongside this should be a “clear plan” to phase out fossil fuel boilers to be included in the National Building Renovation Plan which is due to be published this year.
Ms Donnelly said: “The council welcomes the recent allocation of funds to support development costs of district heating projects and looks forward to the roll-out of district heating networks.
“This can stabilise costs for consumers and help protect Ireland against the volatility of fossil fuel prices.”
In terms of industrial emissions, these reduced by 4.6% in 2024 mainly due to a decline in cement volumes.
However, it said we have not yet managed to break the link between the production levels and emissions in the industrial sector.
It said the country needs to pivot to a more efficient approval process for low carbon cement technologies, with all new buildings needing to have resource and waste management plans to reduce waste in construction.
On waste, emissions in this sector also fell in 2024 but the council said that the volume of waste generated in Ireland “remains too high” and recycling rates among households are not improving.
It added that we compare unfavourably with Europe in this area, and need to end wasteful practices and make better use of the resources we already have.
This is despite the new national Deposit Return Scheme having had a good uptake so far.
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