MAKING HOMES and offices more energy efficient should be the central focus of Irish policy on climate change, according to an official report to be published today.
The report by a Government think tank endorses a gradual increase in carbon taxes and says implementing some far-reaching policy actions could help Ireland surpass its ambitious emissions-reduction targets over the next eight years without resorting to buying carbon credits.
The report by the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) was commissioned by Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan as a core part of his “roadmap” to implement climate-change policy.
The organisation was asked to find policies and measures to help meet the emissions-reduction targets for 2020.
Mr Hogan has given a commitment to respond to the report before introducing the heads of a long-awaited Bill on climate change before the end of the year.
The NESC, which conducts research for the Government on strategic issues, describes the task as a “profound challenge”, especially in the context of Ireland’s economic recession.
The economic situation, it says, has confronted climate change policy with three major “troublesome” obstacles: limits on Government spending; the lack of credit; and the marked reluctance of citizens to spend money or reduce savings.
Nevertheless, it concludes in its 300-page report that the target of reducing emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 compared with 1990 levels can be achieved.
“The challenge is to devise a pragmatic plan which relaxes the constraints as much as possible,” it says.
It pinpoints energy efficiency of homes and other buildings as the key policy that will help Ireland meet its targets and spur economic recovery.
There is huge potential for improvement in this area, it says, because Ireland’s building stock has poor thermal efficiency and is highly dependent on oil. Ireland has high emissions compared with other EU countries, with average emissions 47 per cent higher here than in the UK.
“Most such investments [in retrofitting buildings] can pay for themselves in reduced energy costs and reduced dependence on imported fossil fuels,” it says.
“For these reasons, it would seem that this should be a central focus of Irish policy.”
The Government wants a million homes to be retrofitted by 2020 but the NESC report highlights major difficulties in getting buy-in from householders.
The grant scheme is being phased out, to be replaced in 2014 by a “pay as you save” scheme, under which householders will pay for retrofitting work over a long period through utility bills.
But even now, with grant incentives, the take-up is too low and needs to be increased from 60,000 homes a year to 100,000.
“There has been a slowdown in retrofit activity thus far in 2012. This is a real concern and shows that there is an urgent need to bring forward new measures,” the report says.
The NESC has also argued that energy-efficiency work in homes needs to be much deeper, increasing from an average cost of €3,000 per home to €8,000.
It says “pay as you save” is the correct strategy but also refers to the difficulties in developing and delivering those systems.
In the transport sector, it concludes the 10 per cent target for renewable energy can be met by increasing the biofuels obligation (the biofuels mix in all fuel) from 4 per cent to 10 per cent.
The target of having 200,000 electric vehicles on the road by 2020 will not be met. Notwithstanding that, the NESC argues the ESB should be encouraged to be more proactive in entrepreneurial activity in developing its electric vehicle programme.
