The Irish Government has dropped from a C+ to a C in its 2022 report card for keeping its own climate and environmental promises.
That’s despite a series of commitments made by leaders at the UN climate committee meeting in November intended to improve their performance.
A second independent assessment of their efforts, commissioned by Friends of the Earth, looked at how officials have done across nine categories.
It found we are going backwards on the climate, water and marine protection, and energy but authorities also appear to have pulled up their socks on nature and biodiversity as well as transport.
The scores on waste and the circular economy (excellent), air quality (good), buildings (moderate) and agriculture and forestry (poor) remain unchanged.
Friends of the Earth director Oisín Coghlan said: “Overall I would sum up this assessment as ‘could do better’.
“The Government is attentive in class and quick to put their hand up but that isn’t reflected in their actual results.
“Their homework is often late or not done at all. And there’s just too much dawdling in the corridors and loitering by the bike sheds. It’s time to put the head down and turn their obvious enthusiasm into results.
“We are in a climate and energy emergency and the Government have to start acting like it. They did it for Covid and Ukraine but they aren’t doing it for climate.
“The Government must immediately turn the new sectoral pollution limits into policies and measures that actually reduce emissions with an updated Action Plan due in November.
“They must stand up to fossil fuel interests who are pushing them to address the fossil fuel energy price crisis by locking us into more fossil fuels.
“Instead of embracing this climate-wrecking false solution the Government must proactively help people save energy and money with retrofitting and active travel, prioritising and protecting those in energy poverty.”
Dr Cara Augustenborg, Environmental Policy Assistant Professor at University College Dublin; Dr Diarmuid Torney, Associate Professor, School of Law and Government, Dublin City University and Dr Paul Deane, Senior Research Fellow, MaREI, the SFI Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine, University College Cork were commissioned to carry out the report.
They found that while there has been some progress on governance and financing for climate commitments, Irish emissions continue to rise and adaptation plans are sorely lacking.
Earlier this month we reported how the numbers don’t add up on sectoral emissions ceilings supposed to deliver an emissions reduction of 51% by 2030.
Chair of the Climate Advisory Council, Marie Donnelly, said at the time “they only get to 43%”.
Some ministers, meanwhile, support new fossil fuel projects like Shannon LNG despite committing to the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance and ending direct public support for unabated fossil fuel energy by 2022 at COP26.
The Government’s progress on climate commitments has fallen from ‘good’ in 2021 to ‘moderate’ this year, with a score of just six out of 10.
Dr Augustenborg says their performance on the environment “is a truly mixed bag”.
“While it was uplifting to see significant progress in the area of nature and biodiversity and a policy shift to more active modes of transport, the lack of effort to address water quality was deeply concerning.
“In addition, significant delays on commitments in the energy and agricultural sectors leads to the risk of not meeting our climate targets.
“It’s clear climate change, biodiversity loss and water quality continue to worsen,” she added.
“While this Government has made progress in some areas, their pace does not align with Ireland’s deteriorating environmental conditions.”
Dr Diarmuid Torney added: “Two years into a government’s term in office, I would expect to see clear progression from vision and ambition to detailed implementation.
“We have had no shortage of vision and ambition, but not nearly enough implementation overall. There has been good progress in some areas, particularly nature and biodiversity, and transport, but a notable lack of action in other areas, particularly energy, agriculture and water.”
Dr Paul Deane said: “Of all the options open to the Irish Government, delay wasn’t one of them.
“There is a mismatch between climate ambition and action in Ireland with policy moving at a speed that is both at odds with the existing climate crisis and overlapping fossil fuel energy crisis.”
How did they do, according to the experts?
Climate: 6/10 - down from 7.5
Progress continues on climate change, particularly on governance and financing but emissions continue to rise and adaptation plans are sorely lacking.
Climate engagement with stakeholders has improved. Unfortunately, it has taken this Government two years to set ‘the rules of the game’ when it comes to climate governance and this pace is at odds with the scale of the climate emergency.
Thus, the Government’s progress on its climate commitments has deteriorated from ‘good’ in 2021 to ‘moderate’ this year.
Nature and Biodiversity: 6.5/10 - up from 4.5
Significant progress has been made since 2021 with this category showing the most improvement through the Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss; National Parks and Wildlife Service review; progress on developing new World Heritage sites and new funding for several areas announced at the 2022 National Biodiversity Conference. Areas of neglect include National Invasive Species Management Plans; Urban Biodiversity plans including pesticide use and implementation of the third Biodiversity Action Plan.
Water and Marine: 4.5/10 - down from 5.5
Water quality continues to deteriorate with the government being accused of ‘largely ignoring’ the issue. The experts say there has been low to medium follow through on drinking water promises with a mixed bag on wastewater treatment plants and reducing leaks. They are doing a bit better on marine areas with a new Marine Planning Act and Planning Framework agreed but work is needed to stop overfishing, assign Marine Protected Areas and develop a sustainable development plan for our seas.
Waste and circular economy: 8.5/10 - no change
Significant progress on waste with enactment of the Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act; Extended Producer Responsibility and work on single use plastics and plastic packaging. Nearly all commitments in this area are progressing with the exception of municipal compost and a review of the tax system with respect to the circular economy.
Transport: 7/10 - up from 6.5
Good progress in some areas of transport, including prioritisation and increased funding for active and sustainable transport infrastructure compared to previous governments. Electric vehicle infrastructure, electric buses, rural mobility, transport fares, greenways and e-scooter/e-bike legislation have all improved. Lowering public transport fares during the energy crisis was a strong and positive political sign. In contrast, addressing aviation emissions appears to have been ignored and rail commitments including the Western Rail Corridor, are not progressing sufficiently. The transport sector could be the only one to meet its emissions ceiling target and demonstrates progress on most commitments.
Air Quality: 7/10 - no change
In spite of challenging political conditions, regulations on a nationwide Smoky Coal ban and other solid fuels were agreed in July and are under review by the European Commission.
This is a significant achievement which three previous Governments were unsuccessful in delivering.
Some progress has also been made on regional air quality monitoring and high sulfur fuel. More substantial commitments regarding development of a Clean Air Strategy are too slow, so their score has stayed the same.
Buildings: 6/10 - down from 6.5
Commitments on the built environment are progressing to various degrees. Progress is slow particularly with respect to energy retrofit and heat pump installation.
Some commitments did not work as planned (eg Midlands retrofitting).
While such setbacks are understandable, broader issues like the lack of retrofitting skills and the absence of 100% grant funding offers are delaying progress.
The launch of a National Retrofit Plan has shown moderate progress alongside a focus on sustainable communities by the new Land Development Agency and for retrofitting rental properties, in addition to progress in examining district heating as a solution.
Energy: 4/10 - down from 6
Plans to achieve Ireland’s renewable energy targets are delayed, particularly on offshore wind, planning restrictions for solar panels (especially on schools) and addressing the growing energy demand from data centers.
There has been progress on Renewable Electricity Support Scheme auctions, smart meters and commitments to prevent fracked gas importation.
Long-awaited electricity payments for microgenerators are welcome but very little renewable energy has been delivered in the last year and the sector is unlikely to stay within its emissions ceiling for the first carbon budget.
Given the energy crisis and growing demand via data centers, it is a serious concern that capacity is not being added and emissions from the electricity sector are increasing, including from a significant rise in burning coal.
Agriculture and Forestry: 4/10 - no change
The current agri-food strategy is still responsible for growing nutrient pollution and poor water quality.
Without policy changes, such trends will be locked in for the remainder of this Government.
There has been little progress in the Government’s agri-environmental commitments this year apart from small agri-environmental schemes and soil monitoring.
There is no significant support for transformation of agricultural enterprise.
While some progress has been made in aspects of forestry, peatland rewetting, and the national land use review, overall, there is poor delivery of commitments.
A lack of clear, viable options for farmers in terms of land use remains with few alternatives to move away from environmentally damaging agricultural intensification.
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