The government’s new Climate Action Plan has been published, containing more than 180 actions designed to reduce Ireland’s reliance on carbon and ease its greenhouse gas emissions.

The plan aims to ensure that Ireland will hit the EU’s 2030 targets of a 30% reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions relative to Ireland’s 2005 emissions.

In its new plan, the government notes that Ireland is currently 85% dependent on fossil fuels. Proposed actions to reduce carbon emissions are proposed for electricity, enterprise, housing, heating, transport, agriculture, waste and the public sector.

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Described by the government as “ambitious but realistic”, key features of the plan include measures to:

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• Eliminate non-recyclable plastic and impose higher fees on the production of materials that are difficult to recycle. There are also plans to ban single-use plastic plates, cutlery, straws, balloon sticks and cotton buds;
• Establish a new Microgeneration Scheme, allowing homeowners to generate their own electricity and sell what they don’t use back to the national grid;
• Move to 70% renewable electricity by 2030; currently, only 30% of Ireland’s electricity comes from renewable sources;
• Bring 950,000 electric vehicles onto Irish roads, deliver a nationwide charging network, an electric vehicle scrappage scheme and legislation to ban the sale of petrol/diesel cars from 2030;
• Expand the network of cycling paths and Park and Ride facilities;
• Deliver a programme of retrofitting to install 400,000 heat pumps in homes and businesses, replacing the existing carbon-intensive heating systems;
• Establish a system of five-year carbon budgets and sector targets, with the relevant minister responsible for delivering on the target, with penalties if they are not met;
• Deliver reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture by creating “new, sustainable opportunities for family farms”;
• Deliver a new Retrofit Plan to retrofit 500,000 homes, with large groups of houses being retrofitted by the same contractor to reduce costs, smart finance, and easy pay back methods;
• Every public body will be given a climate action mandate by their line minister to prioritise climate action and new letters of expectation will issue to semi-state bodies on climate action.

Minister Richard Bruton (pictured) said the Climate Action Plan will be annually updated, with actions reported on quarterly.

Speaking about the plan, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that the government wanted to nudge people and businesses to change behaviour and adopt new technologies. "Our objective is to transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient society. This plan represents the sum of our hopes for the future. Our call to action in the fight to save our planet,” he added.

Ultimately, the aim is to have net zero carbon emissions by 2050, according to the Climate Action Plan. “In the new Climate Action Act, we will include a 2050 target in law,” Varadkar stated.