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THERE WAS A record 7.3% decrease in energy-related emissions in Ireland in 2023, reaching their lowest in 30 years.
The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) also estimates that emissions from electricity generation were down by 21% last year.
This, a new report says, is not just due to increased use of renewable energy, but the fact that more electricity is being imported through international interconnectors.
Margie McCarthy, Director of Research and Policy Insights at SEAI said the reduction in emissions is “encouraging”, but that “we must redouble our collective efforts” to reduce reliance on fossil fuels if we are to meet climate targets.
In 2023, Ireland set new highs for wind generation, solar generation, heat-pump installations, EV registrations, and biofuel blending.
The report said this must be built on ”rapidly” to achieve significant and sustained increases in these technologies.
While solar electricity generation increased by over 300% in 2023, it still accounted for just 1.9% of Ireland’s electricity supply.
Additionally, a new record of 11.7 TWh of wind generation was set in 2023, but Ireland needs to install 27% more wind capacity to reach its 2025 milestone.
We need behaviours to change and services in place to support them.
Ireland remains heavily dependent on both fossil fuels and imported energy, with over 80% of energy coming from fossil fuels, and almost 80% of energy imported.
The report also said that transport is an area where collective action is needed urgently, as there has been an “almost full return to pre-COVID levels” of petrol and diesel demand.
Ireland used 1.36 billion litres of jet kerosene in 2023, the highest annual energy demand in air travel ever recorded, up 12.7% on the previous year.
The SEAI says that curbing transport will require better land use planning, more of a shift towards active travel and public transport, and more efficient and renewable modes of private transport.
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In all fairness that’s a great result.
Excellent
Great news. Congratulations and best of luck to all students beginning college in this difficult time.
To think we were laughing at the UK making a bo**ix of their calculated grades system, we then said hold my beer.
Good stuff. Delighted for those impacted but leaving very should never have been cancelled.
I’d say Simon is not missing the health portfolio these days…
Brilliant outcome. Good luck to all the students involved.
This further disadvantages the LC class-of-2019. Already hit with a new system that yielded record results and so put them at a huge disadvantage w.r.t. their LC-2020 counterparts – they are now further back in the queue because 2020 students were upgraded only (but not downgraded) because of the system errors.
Tens of thousands of them – why is nobody “moving mountains” for them ?
Simon is really a great minister what he has done in 2020! Much respect for him.
It’s a great turn around, but they should not be left out of pocket. Will they be reimbursed for fees already paid to a different college, for books and other items specific to the original course they were offered which they have paid for? Deposits on now useless accommodation?
@Dave Gillen #wearamask #noToRacism: I guess there will be a scramble for accommodation now. Only high end units left!
Good news, though tbf at this late point, they might as well defer.
@willow moon: Why?
Most colleges only started back last week or the week before and are online. the majority of lectures are recorded on blackboard or moodle.
No hassle catching up.
@willow moon: not really, a lot of courses would have started later this year anyway and even if they started the first week of September catching up is definitely doable since there’s a lot of introductory stuff in every course
Just out of internet and to clarify, does this mean the initial 424 students that received course places before the coding debacle have now been removed as it were or “squeezed out” fairly? Are they being reimbursed/compensated for their course fees, accommodation, and other expenses by the Department of Education per se??
A week where this story dominated everything from the Dail to the airwaves one muppet of a TD even called for a full public inquiry costing millions never mind the amount of calls for the Ministers head.
This actually affected only 450 out of 60,000 students and they now all have been sorted within two weeks .
We really do need to cop ourselves on and calm down on the indignant outrage for a small bit.
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