{"id":271855,"date":"2026-01-07T08:27:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T08:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/271855\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T08:27:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T08:27:07","slug":"ireland-will-miss-emissions-cut-target-by-half-says-minister-for-climate-darragh-obrien-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/271855\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland will miss emissions-cut target by half, says Minister for Climate Darragh O\u2019Brien \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The State will reduce greenhouse emissions by just half of its 51 per cent target by 2030, Minister for Climate Darragh O\u2019Brien has said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In his clearest statement to date on the likelihood of achieving the ambitious target of cutting emissions by half compared with 2018 figures, Mr O\u2019Brien has accepted there would be a significant shortfall. He said, however, that substantial and rapid reductions would be seen from the early 2030s onwards, once offshore wind power is added to the national grid. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Ireland\u2019s national target is to reduce emissions by 51 per cent by 2030 compared with 2018. In 2018, Ireland\u2019s total greenhouse gas emissions were 61 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. The then government committed to reduce it to 30 million tonnes by 2030. The shortfall from the target could mean the State will be liable for fines running to as high as \u20ac28 billion by 2030.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Talking about the percentage reductions, he said: \u201cWe\u2019re probably projecting in the mid to high 20s in emission reduction until the end of the decade. It is a somewhat significant amount off that target.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThe domestic target is 51 per cent. The EU target is 48 per cent but leaving that aside, we\u2019re right to set exacting targets,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/environment\/climate-crisis\/2025\/11\/05\/politicians-must-wake-up-to-irelands-duty-to-act-on-climate-says-leading-scientist\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Politicians must wake up to Ireland\u2019s duty to act on climate, says leading scientistOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He added that the deployment and the electrification of offshore energy in the early 2030s would result in a \u201creally significant step forward\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He added, however, that although the 2030 target would not be met, all the indications were that emissions were going in the right direction. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe are effectively looking at emissions that are now at a 35-year low, even though our population has increased by 1\u00bd million people. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe\u2019re seeing sectors such as agriculture recording a 6.8 [per cent] reduction and showing reductions for three years consecutive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe know we won\u2019t hit our 2030 [overall] targets. There are [sectoral] targets within that that we will reach.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He pointed to the substantial potential generating capacity of the offshore projects now being planned in the Irish Sea. He said that two of those projects alone would be capable of generating 5 gigawatts of power between them. \u201cOn a normal day we wouldn\u2019t use 5 gigawatts of power here in Ireland,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He did say that demand for electricity would probably double in the future. \u201cWe need those projects in play because offshore and onshore working together will make sure that we can have more energy than we actually need.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Minister said gas will still be required as a component and a backup. He said solar power had expanded at a pace that was unanticipated even until recent years. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cEight years ago, 0.1 per cent of our electricity was generated by solar. And next year we could be close to 10 per cent. That\u2019s where it\u2019s going, and that doesn\u2019t include the rooftop panels.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/life-style\/people\/2025\/12\/21\/the-climate-crisis-in-2025-when-scientific-and-political-realities-diverged\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The climate crisis in 2025: When scientific and political realities divergedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Minister said decarbonising transport would present the biggest challenge. The big infrastructural public transport projects such as MetroLink, Dart Plus and the Luas extensions would be key to achieving emission reductions, he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">On MetroLink, he said if things proceeded smoothly, contracts could be awarded as early as 2027. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Asked about when it would be delivered, he suggested that the project could be delivered in phases leading to earlier commissioning of the services. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cPhase one could be from the south of Donabate to O\u2019Connell Street,\u201d he said, giving an example. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He said the Luas extension to Finglas could go out for tender during 2026, allowing a possible start in 2027 and a possible completion date as early as 2030.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The State will reduce greenhouse emissions by just half of its 51 per cent target by 2030, Minister&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,442,2914,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,961,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-271855","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-climate-change","11":"tag-darragh-o-brien","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-renewable-energy","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115852872978400778","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}