1.7 | Climate Action Plan

1.7 | Climate Action Plan

The NAPCP lists the policies and measures contained within relevant policy documents including the NDP, the Clean Air Strategy, and the National Energy and Climate Plan which will support the reduction of air pollutants, including for the transport sector. While these measures are mainly designed to address related problems such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, addressing congestion and promoting fuel efficiency, they will also contribute to a reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions. Measures include encouraging vehicles with higher engine standards into the Irish fleet through early scrappage schemes, obliging suppliers of road transport fuels to ensure that a proportion of the fuels they place on the market are produced from renewable sources, and achieving modal shift through large-scale public transport capital projects such as BusConnects.

Transport currently accounts for approximately 18% of Ireland’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To put Ireland on a pathway to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, the Climate Action Plan 2021 sets an emission reduction target for the transport sector of 7 million tonnes of CO2, approximately 51% over the period 2021 to 2030. To achieve this target the Plan sets out a range of measures to reduce emissions in the transport sector. These measures consist of a mix of investments in sustainable transport infrastructure designed to deliver an additional 500,000 daily journeys by walking, cycling and public transport, scaling up the deployment of zero emissions technologies to increase the fleet of Electric Vehicles (EVs) and low-emission (with hyphen) vehicles (LEVs) on the road to 945,000, increasing biofuel blending rates, and the use of behavioural change interventions, including demand management, to reduce the kilometres driven by the remaining internal combustion engine (ICE) cars.

The NAPCP notes the particular importance of achieving high rates of electric vehicle penetration to remain in compliance with the nitrogen oxide emissions ceiling for 2030. This will also support reductions in other local air pollutants and contribute towards achieving the climate mitigation goals set out in the NDP and the Climate Action Plan.

Given the significant contribution transport makes to Ireland’s GHG emissions and the ambitious target for the transport sector outlined above, it is imperative that NIFTI reflects the need to rapidly decarbonise the transport sector.