The Irish Government has published its Climate Action Plan 2023 which aims to deliver new jobs and a thriving, green economy for current and future generations.
Other benefits include warmer homes, cheaper electricity, better transport, vibrant and resilient communities, biodiversity-rich landscapes and improved health.
The plan, which builds on previous Climate Action Plans sets out how Ireland will accelerate the action required to respond to the climate crisis, putting climate solutions at the centre of Ireland’s social and economic development.
It is the framework through which the Government intends to meet the legally-binding emissions reductions targets set out in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Acts, and the economy-wide carbon budgets and sectoral ceilings agreed in July 2022 to set down limits on the amount of greenhouse gases that Ireland must not surpass over three five-year cycles.
Changing the systems that shape how we live, work, get around and produce food is required to meet these targets, which are a key pillar of the Programme for Government.
Key measures of the plan involve:
- a rapid scaling up of the transition to renewables, with enough renewable electricity to power every home and business in the country by 2030;
- a dramatic change to Ireland’s transport system with more buses, electric cars and active travel (walking, cycling and public transport);
- ambitious home and business retrofitting and climate-based construction, and 500,000 homes retrofitted to BER B2 by 2030; and
- innovative systems that will protect and support family farms to diversify their income streams, with tillage farming to cover up to 400,000 hectares by 2030.
Industry is identified as one of the six vital, high-impact sectors which will have to reduce emissions. Industry accounted for 10.2 percent of Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2021. Under the Plan it is required to reduce its emissions by 35 percent, by changing how goods and services are produced, consumed and designed. Also required is a ‘decoupling’ of the links between fossil fuel use and economic progress.
An Annex to the Climate Action Plan, outlining more detail on the Plan’s actions, will be published early in 2023.
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