AS THE GOVERNMENT prepares to publish the next Climate Action Plan, up to 166 delayed measures that were due to be completed this year are still waiting to be dealt with.
The Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, which is responsible for the largest number of measures, was the worst performer of any government department in the third quarter of the year, completing only 41% of actions on time.
Overall, 77% of measures scheduled for completion between October 2021 and September 2022 under the Climate Action Plan 2021 have been completed, according to the latest progress update report.
Some previously-delayed actions that were completed in the third quarter include the submission of a railway order application for MetroLink, the enactment of the Circular Economy Bill and, importantly, the agreement of the sectoral emissions ceilings.
However, by the end of September, the agriculture sector was still waiting for the development of detailed plans to manage sustainability in the dairy and beef sectors, Ireland’s long-term climate strategy had not been finalised, and new guidance for retrofitting traditional buildings had not been published – all of which were meant to be finished in the first half of the year.
Between July and September, the government failed to deliver a Bioeconomy Action Plan, to introduce a residential retrofit loan guarantee scheme, or to develop options to enhance climate action delivery in the public sector.
Under the Climate Action Plan 2021, government departments, along with agencies like Teagasc, the Office of Public Works and Fáilte Ireland, are responsible for a broad range of actions aimed at reducing Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions to help prevent climate catastrophe.
Between July and September, government departments and agencies responsible for climate measures completed only 60% of the actions that were due to be finished during those three months on time.
Of 124 measures allocated to the third quarter of the year, 74 were completed on schedule.
That means 50 new delayed actions from the third quarter have been added to 116 ‘persistent’ delays from previous quarters, pushing 166 delayed measures over into the final months of the year.
A new Climate Action Plan is due to be published before the end of this year, which will reflect the carbon budgets and sectoral ceilings that were agreed before the summer.
Its publication will be several weeks later than last year’s plan. The release of the 2021 version coincided with COP26 in Glasgow, an international climate conference.
The latest progress update report outlined that “delays in climate action implementation must be overcome to meet national and EU emissions reduction obligations”.
“Even with full implementation of all Climate Action Plan 2021 measures, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that emissions would only fall by 28% by 2030, not the required 51%,” it said.
“The agency stresses the need for urgent implementation of all climate plans and policies, plus further new measures, to meet 2030 targets and put Ireland on track for climate neutrality by 2050.
In this context, any failures or delays in implementation experienced in Climate Action Plan 2021 are stark and increase the likelihood of not meeting legally-binding carbon budgets and sectoral emissions ceilings.
“The key reasons cited by departments for delayed implementation in quarter three echo those seen in previous quarters and include lengthy stakeholder consultation processes; capacity and capability constraints across the public sector; and desires for alignment with other measures to enhance impact.
“Legislative delays remained prominent in quarter three, along with issues arising from the layers of administrative clearance often required for measures to complete.”
“The issue of continuous, rollover delays in action delivery must be particularly addressed, where actions delayed from previous quarters remain uncompleted despite additional time gained.
“While the quarter two 2022 progress report predicted that half of the 171 delayed measures rolling over would complete in quarter three, only 32% of them were delivered (55 of the 171 measures).”
Currently, the world is around 1.1 degrees warmer than pre-industrial times and is already experiencing impacts of the climate crisis such as heatwaves, droughts and melting ice sheets.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it is “unequivocal” that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land.
Global surface temperatures are expected to exceed 1.5 and 2 degrees unless “deep reductions” are made to emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
The Irish government has set a target of cutting emissions in half by 2030 compared to 2018.
Each annual Climate Action Plan is meant to bring the country closer to that goal.
However, the Climate Change Advisory Council warned at the start of this year that there was still a wide gap between the government’s ambition and its implementation of policies.
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