Ireland’s sluggish climate action efforts will be brought under scrutiny as the European Commission seeks to push laggard countries to achieve their emission reduction targets.
EU commissioner for climate Wopke Hoekstra said talks would take place with the Government to find solutions to whatever was impeding progress.
He would not be drawn on the areas the talks would focus on, saying it was “not helpful” to negotiate in public.
But he said all sectors, including land use, would be under review. That primarily means agriculture, the country’s largest emitting and most politically sensitive sector.
Nine of the 27 EU member states, including Ireland, are running far behind the national targets set for them as part of the overall EU goal to cut emissions by 55 per cent by 2030.
More challenging targets – a 90 per cent reduction by 2040 and net zero by 2050 – will follow.
“We have agreed to these obligations with the whole European family so we do need to take these commitments very seriously,” Hoekstra told The Irish Times.
“The commission has a sometimes complicated, but at the same time important, role to make sure we deliver what we told ourselves we wanted to deliver.
“At the same time, it doesn’t make sense to just tell countries this is a pass or this is a fail.
“We are in a joint endeavour to fix things and that is the conversation I’m looking to have.
“Every sector is by definition part of this conversation.”
The Climate Change Advisory Council and Irish Fiscal Advisory Council have warned Ireland could face penalties of up to €26 billion for failing to meet the 2030 target, which on current performance could be missed by half.
Hoekstra would not discuss penalties, saying while he had heard Ireland’s representatives say they would not meet the targets, he did not believe that point had been reached.
“I’m not there yet,” he said.
However, Minister for Climate Darragh O’Brien later repeated his assessment that Ireland would not comply with the targets.
“We’re not going to hit our 2030 target but that does not reduce our ambition in that regard,” he said.
He said increased support for retrofitting, investment in public transport projects such as MetroLink and the strong pipeline of renewable energy projects were all evidence of this.
O’Brien appeared to play down the significance of the intervention Hoekstra signalled.
“I meet him regularly, actually. He’s a good colleague,” he said.
He said he met the commissioner on Monday and discussed many issues, including preparations for the Cop31 climate summit in November where Ireland will lead the EU delegation.
Hoekstra told The Irish Times priorities for Cop31 would include ensuring other wealthy countries followed the EU’s example in cutting emissions and providing climate finance to help poorer countries deal with climate disasters and adopt clean energy.
He said China, responsible for 30 per cent of global emissions, had set itself an emissions reduction target of just 10 per cent by 2035 and was also not contributing adequately to climate finance.
“I think it is fully fair to ask Europe to do its fair share – we’re doing more than our fair share. At the same time I’m not going to be lured into a corner where we are beyond asking others to chip in.
“It’s fair to ask nations in the Gulf, the Americans – knowing how complicated that is – and indeed China, which has a GDP [gross domestic product] per capita that is higher than at least one of our member states – and the list is much longer – to also do their fair share.”
