Cutting Ireland's carbon emissions by half over the next decade will be immensely challenging but it is achievable, according to Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan.
Having the ability to accommodate 70 per cent of renewable energy from wind and solar on an expanded all-island electricity grid will be "the engineering challenge of the decade", while retrofitting 500,000 houses was "scale-up beyond compare", he told a conference on achieving Ireland's climate action ambitions hosted by the Royal Irish Academy.
Ireland was going to be "as ambitious as possible" but be aligned with the EU in pursuing decarbonisation, though Europe was almost half way there while we have achieved next to no reduction up to now. "We have a lot of catching up to do," he added.
Mr Ryan said there was “real political will” to achieve targets but stressed “it has to be change for the better. It has to be a change which delivers a better economy. It can’t be a finger wagging, punitive, telling people what to do.”
He believed embracing electric vehicles was “not a hardship” because of the tangible benefits, but in transport there was a need to reduce travel demand and to abandon the dispersed development model which had not served the country well. “You cannot keep going out. We have hollowed out our cities. We need to move back into the centre.”
Dense development
A key action would be to use the National Planning Framework to put in place transport-led development in urban areas combined with rail-based systems. This would deliver compact, dense development close to public transport that would be cheaper, quicker to deliver and lead to enhanced quality of life.
Successful modern cities were embracing active travel, he noted, where up to 40 per cent of trips were by cycling. “That is where the investment is going. That is where housing is going. That is where people want to live,” Mr Ryan said.
He accepted agriculture was the most contentious sector politically but defended his view on the need to move away from intensification. If Ireland did not have a pristine environment in terms of its nature, people would not buy its premium food products, he believed.
That meant moving away from monoculture to mixed grasslands; weaning off artificial fertilisers, setting radical standards for biodiversity, and meeting EU obligations on ammonia and nitrogen. “Yes it will mean a smaller herd. But it will also mean higher prices, and more secure prices.”
Climate scientist Prof Peter Thorne of Maynooth University said "every bit of warming matters", so every sector needed to play an aggressive role in counteracting it to ensure the world keeps to within a 1.5 degree rise. "We cannot have special pleading. We all need to act," he added.
Land presented an enormous opportunity in tackling climate disruption, but there had been “two centuries of desecration” due to intensification which undermined its ability to store carbon and to absorb water.
A national land-use plan was urgently required, while working with landowners to put in place appropriate management practices. “We must bring farmers with us rather than saying, ‘you must cut your national herd by 25 per cent’,” he added.
Assistant secretary in the Department of the Environment Brian Carroll underlined the need to set out the extent of effort sharing by each sector, including putting all options on the table; the most cost-effective actions and the benefits, while taking into account social, political and justice factors.
In addition, there was a need to set out what transport is going look like in Ireland’s five main cities; “a vision for liveable cities without reliance on the private car”.
He was not underestimating the challenge and the likelihood of special pleading, but agreed with the need for emphasis on opportunities.
Eirgrid chief executive Mark Foley said there was a need for much faster delivery of infrastructure if climate targets were to be met. This included building of electricity interconnectors linking to other countries.
The failure of the Texas grid during the recent cold spell was a frightening example of what could happen due to extreme weather. Eirgrid would be implementing measures to increase the security of Irish electricity supply, he confirmed.
Data centres were “part of the future” because our lives depended so much on them, Mr Foley added, though he accepted the need to set out how they will be configured and regulated in coming years.
On acceptance of climate-related infrastructure, he cited the case of Codling Wind Park being developed off the Wicklow coast. He looked forward to a time when ordinary people would look out and see this as good and "enabling a low-carbon lifestyle".
Meanwhile, Dr Rory Monaghan of NUI Galway told the Irish Renewable Energy Summit that Ireland had a lot of potential from green hydrogen production where the fuel is generated by a process of electrolysis powered from wind or solar energy. This was a form of dense energy that could be transported long distances and help resolve the issue of how to store energy from power generation.
National gas grid
The hydrogen could be deployed in sectors where electrification is hard to do while Ireland could become a significant exporter of the fuel, he believed. “It’s not a silver bullet; it delivers solutions in a targeted way, where it’s needed.” It was ideally suited for use in buses and may ultimately be usable in the national gas grid.
He confirmed trials were being conducted in Dublin on its use as a blended fuel with natural gas. With Ireland having a modern gas grid, he predicted this option would be realised. Its potential in power generation for data centres was also promising.
Dr David Connolly of Wind Energy Ireland said if Ireland was to exploit offshore wind energy at scale and to deliver 5 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, it had to address planning and grid issues and to provide a route to market for developers through a renewable energy support scheme specifically for that sector.
Even in countries where those pillars were in place, it was taking seven to eight years to get an offshore wind farm in place, noted Irish Solar Energy Association chief executive Conall Bolger. Solar projects could provide up to 5GW by 2030, while offshore wind was being scaled up, but there was "a choke point at the moment rather that "a solution mindset" in facilitating projects.
“Solar is here and coming at scale,” he predicted, but the right policies were needed to enable it to reach its full potential.
