The government has today launched Climate Action Plan 2023, setting out how Ireland will accelerate the action required to respond to the climate crisis, including the measures which need to be taken within the agriculture sector.
According to the government, the plan includes actions that will transform and improve life in Ireland.
Measures include the following:
- Enough renewable electricity to power every home and business in the country by 2030;
- 70% of people in rural Ireland to have buses that go three times a day to the nearest town;
- 500,000 homes retrofitted to BER B2 to make them warmer;
- One in three private cars on our roads to be electric by 2030;
- Walking, cycling and public transport to account for 50% of all daily trips;
- Tillage farming to cover up to 400,000ha by 2030.
The government stated that Climate Action Plan 2023 builds on the previous climate action plans and is the framework through which the government intends to meet the legally-binding, economy-wide carbon budgets and sectoral ceilings agreed in July 2022, and the emissions reductions targets.
Public engagement on Climate Action Plan
Citizen engagement is at the centre of the Climate Action Plan 2023 according to the government.
It stated that through its public consultation process this year, the views of over 4,300 people were garnered.
The plan comes at a time when emissions in Ireland are still increasing, according to the government. In response, the aim of the plan is to transform the systems that exist in society and the economy such as:
- How and where we live;
- How we work;
- How we get around;
- How we produce food.
According to the government, delivering on the targets will mean:
- A rapid scaling up of the transition to renewables;
- A dramatic change to the transport system and how we allocate our road space;
- Ambitious home and business retrofitting and climate-based construction;
- Innovative systems that will protect and support family farms to diversify their income streams.
The Climate Action Plan acknowledges that many of the actions outlined will be challenging — but the government claims that the benefits will include: Warmer homes; cheaper electricity; better transport; vibrant and resilient communities; biodiversity-rich landscapes; improved health; new jobs; and a thriving, green economy for current and future generations.
Speaking at today’s launch of the Climate Action Plan 2023, An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, said: “We find ourselves at a moment of real opportunity for our country, and for the planet. Climate change is the most pressing long-term global challenge of our time and Ireland is facing up to that challenge.
“We should not see climate action as an obligation or a burden. We should embrace it as an opportunity. It’s about warmer homes, cleaner air, fewer journeys, less time commuting, more remote and home working, more jobs and regional development.
“We should be the generation that turns the tide on climate change and biodiversity loss, and leaves the planet to the next generation in a better condition than we inherited it.”
Renewable energy
Varadkar said that within a generation, Ireland could become energy independent by harnessing untapped renewable energy resources.
“We can reap the rewards for our people that come with it – greater energy security, stable prices, new industries producing green fertilisers and green hydrogen, more jobs and regional development,” he added.
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheál Martin, added: “The invasion of Ukraine has only underlined the need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, a central objective of the Climate Action Plan.
“Ministers now have legal responsibility to ensure that each sector is equipped and supported to achieve the emissions reductions demanded of them.
“Achieving our objectives on climate change is a national endeavour that will require a positive, sustained engagement from people across all communities. Government will play its full part, but no sector is, or can be, unaffected by this shared, all-encompassing transition that we have embarked upon.”
Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and Transport, Eamon Ryan, said: “We have written into law one of the strongest climate laws in the world, and the Programme for Government is the greenest ever seen.
“But this is not enough. We are facing three ecological crises – climate, biodiversity loss and pollution. There must be a dramatic shift. We must change.
“But we can and will be good at this. Our potential to be climate leaders is huge and now we need to ramp up our ambition. Global emissions have continued to increase, as they have here in Ireland, so the scale of change needed to reduce them is unprecedented.”
The environment minister said that the Climate Act 2021 and Climate Action Plan 2023 leave little room for manoeuvre and that it is the responsibility of ministers, key economic sectors and industries, to demonstrate that they are on a clear path to halve emissions by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2050.