Climate Action Plan
The Climate Action Plan sets out a roadmap for Ireland with the targets and measures necessary to meet our commitments to halve our greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.
Climate change is a threat to all of us and our way of life. Recent reports from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) could not be starker – the UN described it as a “code red for humanity”. Flooding, drought and extreme heat are set to make parts of the world hostile to human civilisation.
We all recognise the need to take urgent action. We know what we have to do. We need to harness a national and global effort to do it. Failure to act will have devastating consequences, particularly for those vulnerable populations who have done the least to cause climate change.
The Climate Action Plan 2021 is the most detailed and ambitious in the history of the state. It sets out a roadmap for Ireland with the targets and measures necessary to meet our commitments to halve our greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.
This Climate Action Plan represents an effective doubling of ambition on the last plan but it should not be seen as an end in itself - each year the plan will be assessed and adjusted to make sure we are staying on track.
We are changing our electricity system, with less fossil fuels and more renewables.
We are investing in our transport system, and aiming for 500,000 extra walking, cycling and public transport journeys per day by 2030.
We are changing how we heat our homes by helping over 500,000 people insulate their homes and installing 600,000 heat pumps.
We are investing in forestry and rewetting and restoring our bogs.
We are making agriculture and our food systems more sustainable, working with farmers in our beef and dairy sectors to reduce emissions while maintaining production levels.
The Climate Action Plan is our roadmap to bring about systemic change across our society – in every community and every sector. The journey ahead will profoundly shift how we live our lives, how we travel and how we work.
Energy
Energy efficiency and conservation are key to the transformation to a lower carbon society. We must ensure that we can provide our country with reliable, economically competitive energy, and where possible we must endeavour to source our energy from our own renewable resources, reducing our reliance on imported energy.
Biodiversity
The health and wellbeing of the biosphere is integral to, and deeply interwoven with, human health and wellbeing. We wish to see Ireland blossom as a country with healthy soils, water and air, supporting a much richer bird, animal, plant and insect life.
Forestry
To reach our climate targets, we need the highest standards of protection and development for Ireland’s forests as they have a significant role in creating a sustainable green economy in Ireland.
