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22nd Jun 2021

Ireland will not meet 2013-2020 greenhouse gas reduction targets, EPA warns

Stephen Porzio

Ireland has gone over its greenhouse gas emissions target for the 2013-2020 period by more than 12 million tonnes.

Ireland will not meet its 2013-2020 targets for greenhouse gas emission reduction, according to new projections by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The country’s 2020 target under the EU’s Effort Sharing Decision (ESD) is to achieve a 20% reduction on 2005 levels of emissions.

However, Ireland is set to miss its target for compliance with the ESD as our emissions are projected to be only 7% below 2005 levels.

In 2020, the sectors with the largest contribution of emissions were agriculture (37.4%), transport (18.4%) and energy industries (14.8%).

This EPA said its projection includes the impact of Covid-19 on the 2020 emissions.

National lockdowns resulted in a decline in transport emissions, though agriculture emissions were largely unaffected.

Ireland’s 2030 target is a 30% reduction of emissions compared to 2005 levels.

The EPA projections indicate Ireland can still meet its 2030 target by fully implementing its 2019 Climate Action Plan.

This would involve 70% of electricity generated by renewables by 2030, one million electric vehicles on Ireland’s roads by 2030 and installing 600,000 heat pumps and retrofitting 500,000 homes for improved energy efficiency.

You can read the EPA’s report here.

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