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The government approved on Tuesday its plan to tackle energy poverty and to help the poorest households adequately heat their homes amid cold snaps and rising energy bills.
Last week, Ireland’s Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan, formally inaugurated the country’s first large scale solar farm. The site is located near Ashford in County Wicklow and it hosts more than 30,000 solar panels, which will directly connect to the electricity grid.
This project represents a significant departure from Ireland’s previous renewable energy strategy, which focused heavily on on-shore wind turbines, marking the Millvale solar farm as the first of its kind for the Republic.
Cork City Hall has revealed plans for weatherproofing a number of city streets to "bolster the city's outdoor dining and hospitality" sector.
Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr Colm Kelleher has welcomed the €1.3m funding from Fáilte Ireland's Weatherproofing and Dining Enhancement Scheme, which he says will "improve the vibrancy of the city centre experience for residents and tourists".
Mr Kelleher says the investment will "transform how people enjoy the public realm and builds on the momentum generated by the ‘Reimagining Cork City’ programme namely the pedestrianisation of city centre streets, the installation of eight parklets across the wider city, the greening of the city centre, accelerated cycle lane delivery and parking promotions”.
Ireland’s coalition government has approved a climate bill that enshrines emissions reduction targets in law and puts the country on a path to carbon neutrality by 2050.
The proposed law would commit Ireland to cutting its emissions by 51% between 2018 and 2030 and to net zero no later than 2050. Government is pushing it through parliament as priority legislation.
Ireland will receive more than €1 billion from the EU's Brexit Adjustment Fund, making it the biggest single beneficiary of the €4.24 billion Fund, according to figures released on Wednesday (13 January).
Ireland’s new coalition government has set itself an ambitious goal to deliver steep greenhouse gas emissions cuts every year to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.
Long-term renovation strategies are a requirement of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) for all member states. Developed at national level, LTRS goes hand-in-hand with local building renovation initiatives, and both are essential to accelerating the transition towards reaching energy efficiency and climate targets.
These factsheets, prepared by BPIE and national Green Building Councils for the H2020 project Build Upon2, identify which levels of governance must cooperate during the design and implementation of long-term renovation strategies across 8 countries: Croatia, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Spain, Turkey, and the UK. Each factsheet also highlights the status quo of the process, as well as successes and challenges that are faced at local or national level.
Policy makers are increasingly aware that engaging citizens and communities will speed up the pace of change to a clean energy economy. But few are clear about how best to go about it. Recent conferences held in Ireland aimed to showcase best practice and move the debate forward
Cork City Council is the latest local authority to declare a climate change and biodiversity emergency.
The official recognition of a climate crisis follows a motion proposed by newly elected Green Party councillors that also calls for the foundation of a Climate Action Committee.
The Committee will consist of elected members of the Council who will meet with civil society groups to discuss the likes of transport, energy and flood protection measures.
Trois assemblées citoyennes tirées au sort ont fait de l'Irlande un laboratoire exceptionnel pour la démocratie délibérative – entraînant des révisions constitutionnelles majeures : la légalisation du mariage homosexuel et de l'avortement. Comment expliquer ce processus d'une portée inédite ? Le sort de la démocratie Le XXIe siècle voit la montée en puissance de « l'impératif délibératif », et cela n'est jamais aussi clair que dans le cas de la République d'Irlande. Trois assemblées citoyennes tirées au sort (...)
The Citizens’ Assembly spearheaded Ireland’s vote to overturn an abortion ban in 2018, after a similar public consultation led to the vote to allow same-sex marriage in 2015. Now, the assembly could force Dublin’s hand on divisive and expensive new measures to tackle climate change, including raising the carbon tax on road fuels and extending it to agricultural emissions.
The Republic of Ireland will become the world’s first country to sell off its investments in fossil fuel companies, after a bill was passed with all-party support in the lower house of parliament.
The state’s €8bn national investment fund will be required to sell all investments in coal, oil, gas and peat “as soon as is practicable”, which is expected to mean within five years. Norway’s huge $1tn sovereign wealth fund has only partially divested from fossil fuels, targeting some coal companies, and is still considering its oil and gas holdings.
Power grid interconnections and system flexibility are key to integrate bigger shares of renewables. A Franco-Irish research project aims to produce a roadmap to deploy EU power grids that can handle more than 50% of electricity from intermittent renewable sources.
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The Irish government will let cities and towns to sell property below market value to prospective homeowners. The property will be ready for building, part of the Housing for All plan, to alleviate th..
Citizen-led retrofitting, long the poor relation of climate policy, could now be its secret weapon in accelerating rapid transition. Home renovation through the citizen-led model is making breakthroughs from Tipperary in Ireland to Texas in the United States, and with the European Union carving out space for it in their continent wide-approach to improving energy efficiency.
Irish renewable energy experts are designing “next generation” smart buildings where different technologies can “talk” to each other.
A community building in Mayo and a similar building in Italy will be used to test how solar panels, thermal storage and heat pumps can generate energy more efficiently.
Trinity College Dublin and Energy Co-operatives Ireland are collaborating in the €3.5 million Ideas (innovative integrated renewable energy system) project, supported by the EU Horizon 2020 programme.
Revised Climate Action Bill approved by Irish Government During the press conference, Tánaiste (Deputy PM) Leo Varadkar said the Government wants to turn around the current position of Ireland as a major importer of fossil fuels. Alternative plans envision the country exporting renewable energy. Also, changes are to be made to agriculture, so as to promote Ireland as a producer of low carbon and sustainable food, he said.
The government urges the public to join the national consultations for the creation of a new 2021 Climate Action Plan at gov.ie/climateconversation. The consultation will remain open until 17.30h on 18 May 2021.
The President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, has described living in the Doughnut, between social and planetary boundaries, as humanity's overriding goal. This is the first time that a head of state has made such a public declaration.
In a speech entitled 'Climate Action and the Role of Engineers', given on 21 October 2020 at the Engineers Ireland annual conference, he argued that 'a radical paradigm shift is required in the connection between ecology, economics and society.'
The formation of a historic coalition government has put climate action at the top of Ireland's priorities, with a plan to halve emissions in the next decade
Dublin could see more of its road space allocated to walking, cycling and public transport as part of its pledge to improve air quality in the city.
On 17 February 2020, Dublin became the first Irish city to sign a commitment to meet World Health Organisation (WHO) air quality guideline values by 2030.
In a joint pledge, the Deputy Lord Mayor of Dublin and the mayors/cathaoirligh of the other three Dublin local authorities signed up to the BreatheLife campaign.
By signing up to the campaign, Dublin will be joining 76 cities, regions and countries around the globe in demonstrating a commitment to bring air quality to safe levels by 2030 and collaborating on clean air solutions.
Paul McAuliffe, Lord Mayor of Dublin on affordable housing, single-use plastics, cycling and more
A cross-party parliamentary group wants carbon budgets, a higher tax and green agriculture support to reverse the country's lax policies
Kelly outlines need for ‘a just transition fund’ in phasing out peat production
As Britain Brexits, Ireland stalls on climate action. Meanwhile, the EU is Ireland’s only pressure point for moving on climate while under the expansive shadow of Brexit.
The Irish OASC cities Cork, Dublin, Galway, and Limerick have been working together for the last two years to establish a common ground among the cities’ smart initiatives.
One of the most tangible results of the collaboration is the so-called adaptive smart traffic system that aims at alleviating traffic and at the same time reducing noise and air pollution by use of IoT-enabled smart city technology. This project has been recently awarded with the Smart 50 Award in the category energy and has been established on commonly defined demands in the four cities.
The four cities are forming OASC Ireland, a joint effort that drives the exchange of best practices and collaboration both in terms of technology deployment to solve challenges within the city, but also to improve policy and e-government activities.
Cork, Dublin, Galway, and Limerick have been working collaboratively with a number of public institutions and industry partners on solutions based on Internet of Things (IoT) for cities, from the early planning phase of the project to the analysis of the data collected.
Dr Martin Serrano, IoT Unit Director at Insight and OASC Ireland coordinator, said: “This project has motivated the Irish OASC cities – Cork, Dublin, Galway and Limerick – to join forces for the first time across the cities’ administrative and technical offices. It also raised awareness of how IoT technologies can help solve challenges in the city.”
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