{"id":517297,"date":"2026-06-03T23:43:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T23:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/517297\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T23:43:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T23:43:19","slug":"ireland-will-not-hit-2030-carbon-targets-and-could-face-billions-in-fines-says-darragh-obrien-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/517297\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland will not hit 2030 carbon targets and could face billions in fines, says Darragh O\u2019Brien \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland will not hit its target of halving carbon emissions by 2030, according to Minister for Climate Darragh O\u2019Brien, who accepted the State faces the prospect of being fined billions by the EU as a consequence.<\/p>\n

During an interview on The Irish Times Inside Politics podcast<\/a>, O\u2019Brien acknowledged there was no hope of hitting the legally-binding target. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to hit our target by the end of the decade,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to get as close to it as we can, but everything doesn\u2019t stop in 2030.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Environmental Protection Agency last week said that in a best-case scenario<\/a>, Ireland could achieve a carbon emissions reduction of 25 per cent by 2030, well shy of the 50 per cent binding target.<\/p>\n

The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has previously estimated the fines imposed by the European Commission<\/a> for missing the targets could be between \u20ac8 billion and \u20ac26 billion. <\/p>\n

On the possibility of fines or \u201ccompliance payments\u201d which could create an obligation for Ireland to purchase credits from countries that have achieved their targets, O\u2019Brien said: \u201cThere\u2019s certainly a risk that that could happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he said he would be negotiating with the commission with a view to avoiding any related costs for Ireland. He argued it would be better to invest in renewables than to spend billions on fines.<\/p>\n

Asked if he thought he would be able to \u201csquirm out of it\u201d, he said: \u201cI don\u2019t want to think about squirming out of it. I think it\u2019s actually showing we\u2019re literally investing on behalf of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Minister said planning issues were largely to blame for delays to offshore wind projects \u2013 not expected to come on stream until after 2030.<\/p>\n

He said he would ask people who are thinking about objecting to wind-energy projects, by taking judicial review proceedings against them, to \u201clook at the bigger picture\u201d.<\/p>\n

Further delays to wind-energy projects because of judicial reviews \u201cwould be an awful scenario,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien also said that a pilot vehicle scrappage scheme<\/a>, announced on Wednesday, will probably be extended if it proves popular. The scheme will allow people to trade in old petrol and diesel cars for new electric vehicles. <\/p>\n

Extending the scheme would not be reliant on budget negotiations. It could be facilitated by his department through its existing funds, he added. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ll be able to decide it ourselves. I think what I\u2019m trying to do is to deploy more grants with the funds that we have without looking for more money, and I\u2019m not actually looking for more money. It\u2019s trying to manage the resources that we have in a more targeted way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Darragh O’Brien on Ireland’s missed climate targets, new help to buy EVs and Fianna F\u00e1il’s leadership <\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien would not be drawn on the possibility of a Fianna F\u00e1il leadership run when Miche\u00e1l Martin steps down. He insisted there is \u201cno vacancy\u201d and that he hopes the Taoiseach will lead the party into the next general election. <\/p>\n

Few in the party expect Martin to lead the party into an election in 2029 and O\u2019Brien did not deny having an interest in the position should a leadership election ensue next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think my job is to work as hard as I can across the two departments I have (the Department of Transport and the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment) and also for the people in my own constituency,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s all I\u2019m focused on. If things happen in the future, things happen in the future and you assess it at that stage . . . \u201cbut I don\u2019t deal in hypotheticals.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland will not hit its target of halving carbon emissions by 2030, according to Minister for Climate Darragh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,442,2914,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-517297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-climate-change","tag-darragh-o-brien","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116688834825212018","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517297","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=517297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}