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 Irelands 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 Irelands 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.