This Roadmap gives an overview of the school sector requirements and roadmap to 2030 and 2050 climate targets.

The Climate Action Framework for the Commercial Semi-State Sector seeks to help the sector play a leading role in Ireland's net zero transition. The Framework consists of a series of five commitments: <ul><li>Governance of climate action objectives;</li><li>Emissions measurement and reduction target;</li><li>Emissions valuation in investment appraisal;</li><li>Circular economy and green procurement; and</li><li>Climate-related disclosures.</li></ul> Commercial semi-State companies that sign up to the Framework would be entering into its commitments.

This Strategy sets out sector-specific and technology pathways to reaching Ireland's 2050 climate targets. A key objective of the Strategy is to clarify sectoral adjustments required to reach net zero by 2050 and support policy stability and investment in the medium- and long-term. The Strategy contains measures categorised according to the degree of certainty around their use and suitability to realise 2030 and 2050 targets. Core measures include technologies and measures that already exist today and could deliver substantial emissions reduction. Those focus on delivering a renewable electricity system; GHG-efficient agricultural practices; electrification in transport, built environment, and industry; restoration of forestry and peatlands; fuel substitution; and a circular economy. Further measures are those technologies and measures that are technologically more challenging or not yet available at scale but required to deliver the climate targets. Such measures are aimed at accelerating a sustainable transformation in agriculture and deploy zero-emission gas. Alternative-further measures are those technologies which currently exist at research or pilot stage or have not reached commercial scale, such as radical demand reduction (e.g. aviation) and deploy carbon capture and storage in the industry sector. &nbsp;

This Strategy seeks to provide consistency in climate action across the public sector. The focus of this strategy is governance which is one of the key pillars to support the public sector in taking a leadership role within the economy-wide net zero transition. The statutory context for this Strategy is section 15(1) of the <a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://climate-laws.org/document/climate-action-and-low-carbon-development-act-2015_2ea8?l=ireland&amp;c=Legislation" target="_blank">Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021</a> which imposes on public bodies a legal obligation to comply with Ireland’s climate law.

The Climate Action Plan 2023 is prepared under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021. It implements the carbon budgets and sectoral emissions ceilings and sets out a roadmap to halve emissions by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.&nbsp;The Plan places a specific focus on scaling up deployment of renewables to decarbonise the power sector; increase energy efficiency in buildings and deliver zero-emissions new builds; and reduce transport emissions. The Plan seeks to facilitate a Just Transition, emphasises the necessity of citizen engagement throughout the transition to net-zero emissions; and highlights the leading role of the public sector in this regard.

The 2022 budget notably contains a line on slashing public transport fares, rolled-out in from April 2022.&nbsp; It also increases the carbon tax from €33.50 to €41 per tonne. The revenue will help upgrade energy systems in housing. The vehicle registration tax is also increased using a progressive scale based on emissions (bands). The 5000 euro subsidy to the purchase of new electric vehicles is extended to the end of 2023.

Ireland's Finance Act 2020 amends provisions in the 2010 Finance Act regarding carbon taxes on mineral oil, natural gas and solid fuel. The Act legislates annual increases in carbon tax of 7.5 EUR/tCO2 until the tax reaches 100 EUR by 2030 (in 2029, the tax increase will be 6.5 EUR to meet the 2030 objective). As such, the Act increases tax on petrol and diesel to 33.5 EUR (from October 14, 2020 onwards). Tax increases have been applied to all other fuels covered by the Act from May 2021 onwards.&nbsp;

This law commits Ireland's national treasury to divesting its Strategic Investment Fund entirely from fossil fuels within five years after the passage of the law. Specifically, it compels the national treasury to (1) ensure that its assets are not directly invested in a fossil fuel undertaking and divest from fossil fuel undertakings as soon as practicable, (2) ensure that its assets are not directly invested in a fossil fuel undertaking unless such an indirect investment has less than 15 percent of its assets invested in a fossil fuel undertaking. This law does allow the national treasury to invest in a fossil fuel undertaking when that investment is intended to be consistent with (1) the transition to decarbonisation, (2) the implementation of Ireland's climate change obligations, or (3) the government's climate change policy objectives. It requires the national treasury to publicly list investments made under any of these exemptions.

This document amends the Petroleum and Other Minerals Development Act 1960 to prohibit the exploration for and extraction of onshore petroleum by means of hydraulic fracturing. The decision is notably motivated by climate change mitigation motivations. The Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill of 2021 extends the ban to all licences for new oil and natural gas exploration.

This resolution of Dáil Éireann approves the establishment of the Citizens’ Assembly. The Assembly is notably established to consider how the State can make Ireland a leader in tackling climate change, in order to&nbsp;make such recommendations as it sees fit and report to the Houses of the Oireachtas.

Ireland. National Communication (NC). NC 8. Biennial Reports (BR). BR 5., National Communication,Biennial Report from Ireland in 2023

Ireland. 2022 National Inventory Report (NIR), National Inventory Report from Ireland in 2022

Ireland. 2021 National Inventory Report (NIR), National Inventory Report from Ireland in 2021

Ireland. Biennial report (BR). BR 4, Biennial Report from Ireland in 2020

Ireland. Biennial Reports (BR). BR 3. National Communication (NC). NC 7., Biennial Report,National Communication from Ireland in 2018

Smarter Travel - A Sustainable Transport Future: A New Transport Policy for Ireland 2009-2020

Law passed

This document reflects the government's vision and required measures to have a sustainable transport system by 2020. It sets out below five goals:</div><ul><li>To reduce overall travel demand</li><li>To maximize the efficiency of the transport network</li><li>To reduce reliance on fossil fuels</li><li>To reduce transport emissions</li><li>To improve accessibility to transport</li></ul><div>&nbsp; &nbsp;In order to achieve these goals and ultimately ensure that sustainable travel and transport is in place by 2020, the following key targets are proposed:</div><ul><li>Future population and employment growth will take place predominantly in sustainable compact forms, which would reduce the need to travel for employment and services</li><li>500,000 more people will make alternative means to commute and total share of car commuting will drop from 65% to 45%</li><li>Support and provide alternative methods such as walking, cycling and public transport, to rise the share to 55% of total commuter journeys to work</li><li>Total kilometres travelled by the car fleets in 2020 will not increase significantly from current levels</li><li>Reduction of GHG emission from transport sector will be achieved compared to the 2005 level</li></ul><div>&nbsp; &nbsp;Following these objectives and targets, following key actions are proposed:</div><ul><li>Reduce distance travelled by private cars and encourage smarter travel (e.g. encourage people to live close to workplaces, use pricing mechanisms or fiscal measures to encourage behavioural changes)</li><li>Ensure alternatives to the car are more widely available, mainly through radically improved public transport service and through investment in cycling and walking.</li><li>Improve the fuel efficiency of motorised transport through improved fleet structure, energy efficient driving and alternative technologies.</li><li>Strengthen institutional arrangements to deliver the targets.</li></ul><div>&nbsp; &nbsp;The 2017 <a href="https://www.dccae.gov.ie/en-ie/climate-action/publications/Documents/7/National%20Mitigation%20Plan%202017.pdf">National Mitigation Plan</a> lists a number of plans, schemes and frameworks building on this document to achieve decarbonisation in the transport sector.

Smarter Travel - A Sustainable Transport Future: A New Transport Policy for Ireland 2009-2020

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