Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has stated that congestion charges “cannot be ruled out” as part of the Government’s plan to cut transport emissions.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar insisted that the Government would not be “culling cows or confiscating cars” in a bid to hit targets.
The Climate Action Plan 2023 is the second annual update to the original 2019 report.
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It includes the “urgent” actions needed to 2035 and beyond to deliver legally binding greenhouse gas cuts needed from each sector of the economy.
There is no specific commitment to congestion charging in the plan, but it is one of a range of demand management measures that are to be considered.
However, Minister Ryan said that a congestion charge, which would see drivers charged for using cars in the city at certain parts of the day, cannot be ruled out.
“The plan rightly looked, in very detailed modelling assessment, at all the different options and we cannot rule [congestion charges] out,” he said.
“I believe and I argue within our Department that our first response shouldn't be the use of those congestion charges. The first response is the reallocation of road space and other demand management measures like the car park initiatives which makes sure the public transport is super fast.”
Minister Ryan said that high petrol prices in recent times have shown that high prices do not change behaviour and that alternatives need to be put in place.
The Taoiseach stressed that people will not be coerced into doing things and instead must be encouraged.
“The Government isn't going to be culling any cows nor is the Government going to confiscate anyone's car or curtail car ownership,” Mr Varadkar said.
“This is going to be about incentives to use the bus or a train or to walk or to cycle [and] incentives to use an electric vehicle.”
The plan outlines how the Ministers have “now assumed individual legal responsibility to ensure the sectors they oversee are equipped and enabled to achieve the necessary emissions reductions”.
What that means if climate budgets are overshot is still to be decided.
CAP 2023 means ramping up ambition including in six vital high-emitting sectors, each of which has an emissions target it must meet.
They include energy, which has to reduce greenhouse gases 75% by 2030, buildings (commercial 45%/public residential 40%), transport (50%), agriculture (25%), industry (35%) and land use, which is yet to be determined.
In order to meet those targets a raft of new objectives have been set.
Government wants to ramp up renewables, introduce a new green electricity tariff by 2025 to incentivise households to use cheaper renewables and phase out and end the use of coal and peat in electricity generation.
In agriculture they plan to significantly reduce chemical nitrogen as a fertiliser, incentivise and grow organic farming to 450,000 ha, expand biomethane and energy production and improve herd genetics to reduce emissions and improve productivity.
Some 500,000 homes will be retrofitted by 2030.
The installation of renewable energy heat sources in 680,000 houses is also included, while every new dwelling will be designed and constructed to a ‘nearly zero energy building’ standard by 2025 and ‘zero emission’ by 2030.
To meet the required emissions cuts in transport, there must be a 20% cut in vehicle kilometres, reduction in fuel usage and a significant rise in sustainable transport trips.
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