Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht

Thursday, 20 June, 2013

Consideration of Outline Heads of a Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill

Opening Statement by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport

Together with my colleagues from the Departments of

Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and

Agriculture, Food and the Marine, we hope to be able to

address any questions or issues that you have in relation to the

Outline Heads of this Bill particularly in terms of the potential

impact that these Heads will have on the work and policies of

our Departments.

As you know, this Bill aims to create a legal framework that

will underpin key national climate change policy objectives,

namely to secure a low carbon, climate resilient, sustainable

future for Ireland by 2050. While the proposed legislation

needs to be ambitious, this is expected to be a particularly

challenging task for the transport sector for many reasons.

Firstly, by way of context, Ireland has achieved important

reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in recent years and is

expected to comply with its reduction obligations under the

Kyoto Protocol for the first commitment period 2008 to 2012. 

By 2011, emissions from the transport sector had fallen to

levels 22% below the 2007 peak.

However, such reductions are, in large part, a result of

economic recession and it would be absurdly short-sighted to

rely on continuing recession to meet our long term carbon

reduction requirements. By 2020, Ireland is required by the

EU to further reduce its emissions by 20% on 1990 levels.

Emissions from transport in 2011 were 120% higher than 1990

transport emissions.

Emissions from the transport sector are significant at almost

20% of the total and when combined with the agricultural

sector, they account for almost 52% of total emissions and,

significantly, currently over 70% of Ireland’s emissions not

accounted for under the Emissions Trading Scheme. Even with

the achievement of the most ambitious reduction scenarios

such as renewable fuel penetration and electric vehicle rollout

for the transport sector, the Environmental Protection Agency

estimate that transport and agriculture emissions could

increase by 12% by 2020.

For the longer-term, EU leaders have also endorsed the

objective of reducing Europe's greenhouse gas emissions by

80-95% by 2050. In the 2011 White Paper on Transport the

European Commission set out a roadmap towards a

competitive and resource efficient transport system. The

roadmap contains forty concrete initiatives to be implemented

over the next decade to allow for the building of a competitive

transport system that will increase mobility and remove major

barriers in key areas while simultaneously supporting growth

and employment in the sector. At the same time, the proposals

aim to dramatically reduce Europe's dependence on imported

oil and align with the wider goal of cutting carbon emissions

by underpinning reductions of 60% in the transport sector by

2050.

The Bill being considered today will aim to put in place a Low

Carbon national roadmap for Ireland. This roadmap, which is

to be developed initially at sectoral level, will echo and be

guided by EU initiatives, including those transport initiatives

set out in the White Paper, but will be tailored to the Irish

context for purposes of achieving the 2050 objectives.

These sectoral roadmaps will also reflect existing domestic

policy measures, which are already delivering considerable

change, many of which are cross-cutting in nature. Transport

accounts for one-third of Ireland’s energy requirement and

energy related CO2 emissions so it is vital that we work closely

with other key Departments, particularly the Department of

Energy, Communications and Natural Resources. The big

difficulty for transport is its almost total dependency on oil.

Scarcity of oil and volatility in oil prices, along with

environmental concerns, are acting as major catalysts in our

drive towards efficiency combined with our search for viable

alternatives to oil.

In terms of efficiency, advances in engine technology have

provided significant dividends in fuel efficiency and, this,

combined with a rebalancing of motor tax and VRT in 2008,

has led to a major shift in the purchasing decisions of private

car owners in Ireland.

Tax reform is very useful for incentivising the take-up of

efficient technologies but regulation can also play a role. A

good example of such regulation is the Biofuels Obligation

Scheme. The Government introduced a biofuels obligation to

ensure that a certain percentage of the transport fuel used in

the State consists of biofuels. Since 1 January 2013, the

percentage of biofuels to be contained in transport fuel was

increased from 4% to 6% and it is expected that this Scheme

will be a key component in achieving a 10% penetration of

renewable energy in transport by 2020.

Underpinning these measures is an overarching policy that

seeks to develop a future-proofed sustainable transport system

that serves the economic, societal and environmental needs of

the country. Existing measures being undertaken and

supported by the Department span the aviation, land transport

and maritime sectors and focus on encouraging smarter travel,

on delivering alternative travel options and improving the

overall efficiency of motorised transport in general.

In terms of smarter travel and alternative transport options,

the long term successes of the measures, while ongoing, will

be very reliant on an integrated approach to transport and

spatial planning and my colleagues from the Department of

Environment, Heritage and Local Government will be at the

forefront of delivering such integration in developing a new

National Spatial Strategy. By creating compact, accessible

urban environments, people will be in a better position to walk

and cycle from home in order to avail of local education,

employment and retail services. We could also expect that

people who are living in a better planned environment will be

the ultimate beneficiaries of a more targeted and efficient

public transport system.

Furthermore, the Department, with its agencies, is heavily

involved in the promotion of more sustainable modes of

transport through funding programmes that are delivering

high quality walking and cycling infrastructure across the

country.

A key goal for the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport

is to reduce overall travel demand and commuting distances

travelled by private car and these types of programmes

support that goal.

The foregoing are just some of the measures, initiatives and

programmes currently underway and most will play some role

in the development of a national low carbon roadmap.

In drawing up the roadmap, in line with the proposed

legislation being discussed today, the Department intends

launching an initial public consultation phase in the summer

by seeking submissions to a thematic paper on key policy

considerations within the transport sector. Such

considerations may include a least cost measures approach, a

focus on technology, sustainable land use patterns, alternative

fuel options and market susceptibility. It is hoped to provide

an 8 to 12 week period for this consultation and receipt of

submission.

Subsequent to this phase and consideration of submissions,

the Department would hope to draw up an initial roadmap for

consultation with other Departments, including those

represented here today, by the end of October.

Any measures included in the roadmap would need to have

regard to other Government policies as well as any research or

data that is available on the transport sector. One such piece

of important research is the Final Report prepared by the

National Economic and Social Council on ‘Ireland and the

Climate Change Challenge’, which was published in 2012.

Within the transport sphere, that Report recognised the

centrality of technology development, such as engine

improvements, electric vehicles, gas-based vehicles and ICT,

that could be exploited for the benefit of a more sustainable

transport sector. Of course we will also look to Europe and

beyond and consider where we could find synergies in

developments as they occur across the EU.

Achieving sustainable transport will require a suite of actions

that will have complementary impacts in terms of travel

demand and emissions. This will be a challenging exercise but

it is one that we are committed to undertake in co-operation

with all key stakeholders and Government Departments to

ensure that we set out the necessary steps to achieving a low

carbon future for Ireland.