From targets and plans to implementation and delivery: Eight climate policy challenges that the Government faces in 2022

View all news

Friends of the Earth has published a media briefing outlining 8 policy challenges the Government faces this year in the area of climate change.

Commenting, Friends of the Earth Director, Oisín Coghlan, said:

"2021 was all about the big picture, setting a target for 2030, putting it in law, and outlining plans to cut emissions in half. 2022 is all about the implementation and delivery of the hundreds of commitments in the Climate Action Plan, across all government departments, to actually start reducing pollution. And it's about the Climate Council, the Oireachtas, the media, and civil society holding government to account for delivering those commitments."

Recent developments, such as the sudden rise in international fossil gas prices and its knock-on effect on heating and transport costs, have shown how the public and policy debate on climate and energy policy are, like all polices areas, subject to complication by external events. Rising energy costs have raised the stakes for climate policy, providing both a challenge, in terms of protecting the vulnerable and ensuring public buy-in, and an opportunity in the form of heightened expectation of radical government intervention. Even before that, the Government faced big climate decisions in the following 8 areas this year:

  1. Implementing the Climate Law: carbon budgets and sectoral ceilings
  2. Implementing the Climate Action Plan
  3. Implementing the National Retrofit Plan
  4. The Future Role of Fossil Gas
  5. Streamlining Implementation: the example of solar on schools
  6. The new Land Use Plan and the future of agriculture
  7. A packed EU agenda
  8. A challenging international arena

Download the full briefing here.

Topline summary:

1. Implementing the Climate Law: carbon budgets and sectoral ceilings
It took 16 years from the first Dáil debate on putting our climate targets into national law to the passing of the 2021 Climate Act, but that may yet come to be seen as the easy part. Now we have to cut emissions in half in 9 years. The Dáil and Seanad are expected to vote on the two 5-year carbon budgets to 2030 before the end of February. The Government then has to divide that carbon budget between each sector, allocating bigger or smaller slices of the “pollution pie” as it has been called. That's when the rubber really hits the road. Read more here.

2. Implementing the Climate Action Plan: delivery, delivery, delivery
With the new Climate Law now in place, 2022 is the year that Ireland must move from ambition to action on cutting pollution.If the Government is going to meet the legally binding target of reducing emissions by 51% by 2030 it is going to need to implement hundreds of decision across all departments. There are 475 actions in the 2021 Climate Action Plan, which Government must now deliver on. Several of the significant commitments and deadlines for Government departments are outlined in this and subsequent sections.Read more here.

3. Implementing the National Retrofit Plan
In February, the Government is due to launch what the Climate Action Plan describes as a “retrofitting campaign” including the latest package of SEAI grants and a network of One Stop Shops, which will offer homeowners all the services required for a full home upgrade. The Government will have to respond to a range of issues regarding the feasibility, financing and mechanics of achieving these targets across the country. Some of which were recently highlighted by Government backbencher Brian Cowen. Read more here.

4. The Future Role of Fossil Gas
In 2022 there will be a series of decisions that will have a very significant impact on how much gas we will be using not just in the 2020s but through the 2030s as well, including:

  • The Energy Security Review.
  • The CRU decision on Gas Networks Ireland revenue.
  • An Bord Pleánala decision on Shannon LNG in March.
  • Data Centres driving electricity demand.

Read more here.

5. Streamlining Implementation: the example of solar on schools

The historical evidence suggests that the administrative system, Government departments in particular, are going to have to get significantly quicker at translating political decisions into operational policies and related schemes and regimes if we are going to meet our 2025 and 2030 targets. One egregious example of this challenge in recent years is the case of the Government’s failure to remove planning restrictions on solar panels on schools. Since 2019 the Government has repeatedly committed to reviewing and updating the relevant planning regulations but the process is still not completed three years later. Read more here.

6. The new Land Use Plan and the future of agriculture

The Government has committed to completing a land use review and developing a new land use plan in 2022. In theory, this National Land Use Plan should allocate land to different uses in a manner that is sustainable and meets our needs at, and across, different scales. Politically, the commitment to a land use plan in the Programme for Government was a counterweight to the commitment to the rapid completion of Agri-Vision 2030 which was industry-led but backed by Government. Civil society coalitions produced their own proposals for the future of Irish Food and Agriculture, having walked out of the industry-dominated drafting committee for Agri-Vision 2030 when their concerns were ignored. The question now is can the development of a Land Use Plan drive agricultural reform to rapidly reduce emissions in a way that Agri-Vision 2030 and the CAP Review have so far failed to do. Read more here.

7. A packed EU agenda

The EU Commission has unveiled several proposed updates to existing EU legislation in recent months. The proposals are the final instalment of the so-called ‘Fit for 55’ package of legislation designed to deliver 55% emissions reductions by 2030, tackle energy poverty and ultimately make Europe the “first carbon neutral continent by 2050”. In the first half of the year Ireland will need to define its position on a number of legislative proposals. After a significant shift in political positioning by this Government compared to the 2011 to 2020 period when Ireland came to be seen as a drag on EU climate action, the coming months will test whether Ireland’s progressive rhetoric translates into concrete positions and votes on EU files such as the:

  • Regulation on Sustainable Finance Taxonomy
  • Energy Efficiency Directive
  • Energy Performance of Buildings Directive
  • TEN-E Regulation
  • Gas Directive and Methane Regulation

Read more here.

8. A challenging international arena

While 2022 doesn’t have a single focal moment like 2021’s COP26 in Glasgow there are still a number of initiatives and arenas where the Government is active and will be challenged to demonstrate impact and leadership. In particular, the UN COP27 Climate Summit taking place in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt from 7-18 November 2022 will be an important moment. Challenges and opportunities include:

  • Climate Finance
  • Loss and Damage
  • Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance
  • Ireland on the UN Security Council

Read more here.

ENDS

Read the full briefing here

Categorised in:
Climate Change