Irish Examiner View: Call in the cavalry for wartime effort on retrofitting

We face the ultimate existential crisis because of climate change, and retrofitting is a key part of Ireland's strategy to fight it.

Yet another front in the ongoing battle against climate change was opened up this week, when the size of the retrofitting challenge facing Ireland was outlined in some detail.

If 500,000 homes are to be adapted for energy efficiency by the end of the decade, in accordance with our Climate Action Plan, then the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) says a “wartime effort” is needed to meet that target.

Is that rhetoric overblown? Language is important in these matters — as well as everywhere else — in that the urgency of the circumstances must be conveyed with as much force as possible.

We face the ultimate existential crisis because of climate change. It means that every measure which can be taken to combat that change must be seized; retrofitting houses and other energy efficiency measures could lead to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions as well as less waste and associated pollution.

In that context, it is difficult to argue against this level of description, as it conveys the life-or-death struggle facing us (as does the reference to ‘opening a new front’ in the opening sentence above).

The work needs to be focused and efficient itself, of course. There is a significant level of detail in recent revelations about retrofitting efforts up to now.

For instance, last month the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) reported that almost 10,000 retrofits of one form or other were completed in the first quarter of this year, but only 3,300 were completed to “B2 or better” energy rating. That is a proportion of effective works which will have to be improved significantly.

Educating the public to acknowledge the importance of these works is a key part of the drive to meet the 500,000-home target by 2030, and urgency is a clear consideration. In that regard, the IIEA’s suggestion that Ireland needs to be on a war footing to reach that target is 100% correct.