THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD end fossil fuel subsidies and allocate more funding to replacing fossil fuels with clean energy alternatives, the Climate Change Advisory Council has stated.

The advisory panel of climate experts is calling on the State to end Ireland’s reliance on “harmful, expensive and unsustainable” fossil fuels while providing supports to people whose livelihoods may be the most affected by the transition.  

The Climate Change Advisory Council has published the final chapter of its annual review today, assessing Ireland’s current and projected emissions and making cross-sectoral recommendations that it says must be urgently implemented to take action on the climate crisis.

In 2022, the government signed off on legally binding carbon budgets that allocate a set volume of emissions Ireland is allowed to produce in five-year cycles. The amounts decrease over time and were intended to act as a ceiling on the emissions Ireland can afford to produce and still be able to reach important climate targets in 2030 and 2050.

Over the last year, numerous expert bodies, including the Climate Change Advisory Council and the Environmental Protection Agency, have warned that Ireland was on track to overshoot the first carbon budget, which ends in 2025.

However, after a drop in the country’s emissions last year compared to the prior year, the Council has said Ireland is now closer to potentially staying within the first budget – but a lack of significant progress means it is not yet on course to meet the second budget for 2026-2030.

Chair of the Council Marie Donnelly has warned that failing to meet EU targets could cost Ireland more than €8 billion up to 2030.

“While progress has been made in reducing our emissions, it is not enough to meet our national and EU climate targets,” Donnelly said upon the release of the new report chapter.

“However, there is an opportunity to build on the good work that has been done, with targeted supports in place for households and businesses, which will make heat pumps and EVs more accessible, and further delivering on the retrofit of our housing stock, reducing our reliance on imported and expensive fossil fuels,” she said.

Donnelly said that success in reaching the targets will depend on “the delivery of an effective and fit for purpose planning system as a key Government priority”.

“This must support the generation of our own onshore wind and solar electricity and ensure that housing developments are located close to services and public transport, while bringing vacant and derelict housing back into use.

We have the opportunity, now, to transform our society to a modern, climate resilient, biodiversity rich, environmentally sustainable and climate neutral economy or else pay the price of not meeting our commitments which will take crucial funds away from essential services.

“It is better to make the investments now for households, communities and businesses, rather than paying a large fine in a few years.”

Fossil fuels

The Council’s top recommendation is that the government should end Ireland’s reliance on fossil fuels by ceasing subsidies for fossil fuel consumption and instead targeting financial support where the transition will be most challenging and to those most at risk from the impacts of climate change.

The government should increase funding and better facilitate a faster uptake of low-carbon technologies and alternatives across all sectors, the Council said.

The report points to specific plans and programmes that the government has promised but not yet fully delivered on, calling for their implementation – particularly the revised National Planning Framework and the Land Use Review. The latter should be accompanied by an implementation plan to “protect nature and restore land in support of a sustainable, resilient and biodiversity-rich economy”.

It says the government should publish an implementation plan for measures adopted through the European Green Deal and should develop national capacity for climate event attribution to better understand how climate change influences specific weather events.

Additionally, there should be a “programmed re-evaluation of the levels of carbon budgets so that they remain coherent with Ireland’s emissions statistics, which are constantly being improved and updated”.