Latest Climate Action Plan Progress Report highlights urgency of accelerated climate action delivery
- Published on: 25 July 2023
- Last updated on: 21 August 2023
The Quarter 2 Progress Report of the 2023 Climate Action Plan (CAP23), published today, details the delivery of significant climate actions across sectors and highlights the urgent need to overcome any delays in policy implementation to reduce Ireland’s contribution to climate change worldwide. The findings echo calls from the Climate Change Advisory Council Annual Review 2023 that also published today, including the need for greater action taken at a faster pace if we want to see emissions fall more rapidly.
In total, 51 climate actions were scheduled for delivery and reporting in Q2 2023. An implementation rate of 63% was achieved, with 32 measures completed on time. The published report highlights significant actions both completed and delayed in Q2, including across agriculture, buildings, electricity, industry, and transport sectors as well as in cross-cutting areas like planning, research and public sector leadership. Overall CAP23 implementation, combining delivery from Q1 and Q2, stands at 72% (63 of 87 actions completed to date).
As heatwaves continue to wreak havoc across Europe and America and death tolls continue to rise from unprecedented flooding in Asia, the urgency of climate action worldwide is undeniable. Faced with this shared global threat, countries will be judged by how they respond. Ireland has committed internationally to play its full part in UN and EU commitments, and to ensuring a just and fair approach to action taken at home. Our reputation worldwide is dependent on credible, measurable and fair climate action, with significant opportunities available to Ireland if we succeed.
Quarterly progress reports on CAP implementation help to bring transparency to our transformation efforts, and focus attention on overcoming delays and accelerating delivery.
Speaking on the Q2 Report, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said:
“This summer we are again seeing the hugely concerning effects of climate change in Ireland and across the rest of the world.
“The government has set out a programme of transformation across all sectors of our economy, one which will meet our climate obligations but also presents real opportunities for our country. We can ensure warmer homes, cleaner air, fewer journeys, less time commuting, more remote and home working, more jobs and regional development.
“This involves every community, family and individual in Ireland; we must all play our part. Together we will make the changes necessary to achieve our climate ambitions, safeguard our future, reap the economic and social opportunities that this presents and play our full part in the global fight against climate change.
“Ireland can become energy independent within a generation. I was particularly pleased to see this report show solid progress on the development of offshore wind capacity, that will unlock so much in our efforts to reduce emissions in electricity generation and in heating and transport.”
Tánaiste Micheál Martin said:
“The past few weeks have demonstrated the alarming reality of climate change across the globe. Heat domes across North America, North Africa and Asia, along with record-high water temperatures in the Atlantic, are resulting in extreme heat, forest fires, and threats to public health. We know that the most vulnerable are at risk, which is why rapid action is needed to both adapt to and mitigate climate change.
"Delays in implementing climate policy are no longer acceptable, and further ambition and acceleration of climate action are urgently required. I welcome the positive actions achieved this quarter in the Climate Action Plan, and the work undertaken by all those involved. However, more is to be done to meet the pace of the Climate Emergency which is unfolding before our eyes."
Minister Eamon Ryan said:
“It is clear that we can no longer turn away from the consequences of our actions as a largely fossil-fuelled global economy and society. Everywhere we turn, we see the outputs of putting more and more emissions into the atmosphere, to the point where June 2023 was the hottest month ever recorded in Ireland while July is looking to be the hottest month ever recorded globally. There have been significant achievements undertaken as part of the Climate Action Plan in transport, energy, agriculture, and buildings among others. These actions have taken a lot of work across the system to get over the line. We are making progress. However, recent reports from the EPA are demonstrating to us that we need to be even more ambitious, put in more work, and do all of this faster. Work on Climate Action Plan 2024 is currently underway, and this provides for an opportunity to increase and strengthen our high-impact actions for each sector, continuing the good work and meeting the challenge with determination, realism, and enthusiasm.”
Notes
Climate Action Plan 2023
The Climate Action Plan 2023, launched in December 2022, is the second annual update of its kind and the first to be prepared under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021. It follows on from the introduction, in 2022, of economy-wide carbon budgets and sectoral emissions ceilings.
Implementation of the Climate Action Plan will create jobs, new economic opportunities and protect people and planet.
The plan details actions across a number of areas, including six vital, high-impact sectors:
- powering renewables
- building better
- transforming how we travel
- making family farms more sustainable
- greening business and enterprise
- changing our land use
CAP23 Q2 Progress Report
An Annex of Actions to support delivery of CAP23 was published on 7 March 2023. This is the second Progress Report on the actions outlined in the Annex that were due for delivery and reporting in Q2 2023.
As with the Q1 2023 Progress Report, progress reporting by the Department of the Taoiseach on CAP23 is largely confined to new initiatives or significant steps towards achieving the government’s climate ambitions., as detailed in the Q2 2023 Progress Report.
High-impact actions completed this quarter include:
- AG/23/3: Open TAMS 3 to fund Low Emissions Slurry Spreading
- TR/23/62: Put in place regulations to support biofuel trajectory
- EL/23/10B: Deliver Offshore Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) Auction
- EL/23/13/A: Publish the Small-Scale Generation Scheme high-level design
- BE/23/5/A: Ensure that homeowners have the option of only paying the cost of upgrade “net of grant”
- LU/23/7A: Support capital investments in grassland management equipment
- EN/23/7: Develop a Policy/regulatory roadmap for green hydrogen
High-impact actions delayed this quarter include:
- AG/23/1: Introduce a National Fertiliser Database
- TR/23/30: Publish National Cycle and Greenway Network
- BE/23/31/B: Launch a new retrofit scheme aimed at SMEs
- LU/23/1: Adopt the new Forestry Programme 2023-2027
- JT/23/1: Establish a Just Transition Commission
- CP/23/4/A: Update shadow price of carbon