{"id":469471,"date":"2026-05-27T11:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T11:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/469471\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T11:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T11:59:11","slug":"irelands-climate-targets-out-of-reach-as-minister-points-to-early-2030s-timeline-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/469471\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s climate targets out of reach as Minister points to \u2018early 2030s\u2019 timeline \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minister for Climate<\/a> Darragh O\u2019Brien<\/a> has said while Ireland will not meet targets for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, there has been a marked improvement in certain areas and the targets will be reached in the \u201cearly 2030s\u201d.<\/p>\n

Projections by the Environmental Protection Agency<\/a> (EPA) show an overall reduction of 25 per cent in emissions is possible, but that is only about half of the 51 per cent drop required by law.<\/p>\n

Ireland will achieve at best just half of the cuts in greenhouse gas emissions it is committed to make by 2030, the latest forecast shows.<\/p>\n

The EPA also warns the reduction could be as little as 13 per cent if current climate policies are pursued for the next four-and-a-half years and pledges for further action do not materialise.<\/p>\n

The \u201cpositive side\u201d according to O\u2019Brien, was there had been a marked improvement in certain areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be very difficult to hit that 2030 target. But what you see within the figures that the EPA have produced independently is we again have been able to decouple economic growth from emissions. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we\u2019re seeing continued emissions reductions, particularly across energy,\u201d he told RT\u00c9 Radio 1\u2019s Today with David McCullagh show.<\/p>\n

There had been significant changes in transport and in residential with a 200 per cent increase in applications for retrofitting, he added.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ireland\u2019s greenhouse gas emissions to fall by just half of the amount pledgedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\"IrelandIreland will not meet targets for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Photograph: Stephen Collins\/Collins <\/p>\n

The Minister said he welcomed the EPA\u2019s report as independent data was important, but the report did not include the increase in EV sales in the first quarter of this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, we need to do more and we can do more, particularly on energy. So if you look at the projection, the EPA have there of where now about 50 per cent of our electricity is generated through renewables, they\u2019re projecting that will be about 60 per cent by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the additional and acceleration measures that we brought in, that\u2019s more likely to be between 68 per cent and 70 per cent by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what I\u2019m saying is, yes, 2030 is going to be incredibly difficult. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t expect us to hit the 2030 target, but we won\u2019t be far off it. And we\u2019ll be reaching that target early in the 2030s.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the big reasons for that is offshore renewables. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d a five-gigawatt target for offshore wind electrified by 2030. That is not going to happen. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur focus is getting them into construction by 2030, because we have had to go through a planning process that has delayed that.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a lot of confidence in the sector that the target would be achieved, he said.<\/p>\n

Ireland was the number one country in Europe for the integration of renewables into the grid. \u201cWe\u2019re actually number three in Europe for storage, only behind Germany and Italy in relation to battery storage, which we need to be able to save that energy to dispatch it at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0International scientists plead with Ireland not to adopt controversial greenhouse gas assessment methodOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minister for Climate Darragh O\u2019Brien has said while Ireland will not meet targets for cuts in greenhouse gas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2885,25746,11654,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-469471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-climate-change","tag-darragh-obrien","tag-environmental-protection-agency-epa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}