At a Time of Climate Crisis: Electrification is Ireland’s missing climate link

Electrification is the bridge between Ireland’s renewable energy potential and its climate commitments

In this month’s column for the Irish Times MaREI researcher Dr Hannah Daly at ERI, University College Cork writes is ‘Electrification is Ireland’s missing climate link’.

Expanding renewable energy capacity is rightly a central mission in Ireland’s climate strategy. The Government’s climate action plan lays out ambitious milestones for offshore and onshore wind and solar energy, and has created detailed plans to remove barriers and create the conditions to achieve those targets. Ireland has become a global leader in onshore wind development, and the industry is eager to continue building. This is an achievement worth celebrating.

But renewable energy supply is only one half of the picture. Realising their transformative potential is only possible if the clean electricity that comes from wind and solar farms is used to replace fossil fuels. This may sound so obvious that it shouldn’t need to be stated, but a critical misunderstanding persists: some interpret climate commitments under the climate law as simply building more renewables.

But this is not the case. Renewables are a tool, not the goal in themselves. Ireland’s legally binding commitments are expressed as carbon budgets – limits on greenhouse gas pollution in five-year periods. Emissions reductions only happen when renewables actively displace fossil fuels.

Read the full article here.