New figures reveal just how far the Government is behind in key climate targets

The latest statistics show just 5% of the 400,000 heat pumps it aimed to install by 2030 have been completed. File picture 

Figures have revealed just how far the Government is behind its key climate targets, with officials admitting they "must do more" with time running out to the 2030 deadline.

The latest statistics show just 5% of the 400,000 heat pumps it aimed to install by 2030 have been completed.

The Government is also falling behind in its plans to retrofit 500,000 older homes to a BER rating of B2 or above, with fewer than 100,000 homes improved.

The figures, seen by the Irish Examiner, were provided to Sinn Féin’s climate spokesperson Pa Daly by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).

The 2019 Climate Action Plan set several retrofitting targets for 2030. This included upgrading 500,000 existing homes to a B2 Building Energy Rating (BER) and installing 400,000 heat pumps.

These targets were repeated in the 2021, 2023, and 2024 updates to the Climate Action Plan, published by the Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and Green Party coalition.

The 2025 Climate Action Plan, published in April 2025 by this Government, however, omitted these figures. The new SEAI figures now show the Government is on track to miss the targets.

Between 2020 and July 2026, just 19,583 heat pumps have been installed in existing dwellings. That is just 4.9% of the 2030 target of 400,000.

It is also significantly less than the “key target” of installing 45,000 pumps by 2025 set in the 2023 and 2024 Climate Action Plans.

The highest rate of heat pump installation was in Dublin, where 4,211 were installed across the five-and-a-half-year period. This was followed by Cork, with 2,467.

The Government is also on course to miss its targets to have 500,000 homes retrofitted to a BER B2 standard by 2030. By the end of July, 95,319 homes had been upgraded to this standard. Some 18,548 of these were carried out in Dublin, while 12,647 were carried out in Cork.

If the Government is to hit its targets, 404,000 homes will need to be retrofitted to a B2 rating in the next three and a half years.

Despite the plans specifically saying houses would be upgraded to B2, a spokesperson for Darragh O’Brien’s Department of Climate, Energy, and Environment argued that “all upgrades, not just upgrades and deep retrofits to B2 ratings or above, reduce energy usage and contribute towards the required carbon emissions reduction”.

'We must do more'

He also said upgrades completed outside of SEAI schemes will count towards overall delivery.

“According to Environmental Protection Agency data, emissions from the residential sector were within their Sectoral Emissions Ceiling for our first Carbon Budget (2021-2025),” the spokesperson said.

“But it is acknowledged that we must do more to meet the second Carbon Budget (2026-2030).”

They also said “the pace of delivery is ramping up year-on-year”, and applications to the SEAI for home energy upgrades for the first half of 2026 were up 251% compared to 2025.

Mr Daly told the Irish Examiner the SEAI figures are a “damning indictment of the Government's retrofit strategy”, which expose a “massive failure to meet retrofit and heat pump targets” and a “growing green divide between different parts of the country”.

He lamented that installations are primarily based in cities, noting that counties such as Leitrim, Longford and Monaghan are lagging behind with 131, 150, and 155 heat pump installations respectively.

“These figures expose a climate strategy that is failing on two fronts,” Mr Daly said.

“It is failing to deliver the scale of retrofitting and heat pump installations needed to meet climate targets, and it is failing to ensure that the benefits of the transition are shared fairly across Irish society."

• Louise Burne is Political Correspondent.

CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB