Gemma O’Reilly from National Economic and Social Council Ireland has published an excellent report last week that provides five recommendations on how to make Ireland a cleaner, healthier, more secure place, free of its reliance on fossil fuel. The following is the executive summary. The full report is available here.
Accelerating the Transition to a Sustainable Energy System
Energy is central to a functioning, healthy and thriving society, underpinning a wide range of societal and economic goals. To avoid dangerous climate change, a major energy transition is required globally and in Ireland to urgently reduce GHG emissions through ‘a substantial reduction in overall fossil fuel use, the deployment of low-emission energy sources, switching to alternative energy carriers, and energy efficiency and conservation’ (IPCC, 2022, p28). Despite many plans and strategies in place, Ireland is not on track to meet its climate and energy targets. This report, NESC’s fourth report on the energy transition, examines the energy sector in Ireland using systems thinking tools to identify approaches to accelerate the transition to a sustainable energy system.
Engagement by NESC with stakeholders has highlighted that, while there are efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, different energy outcomes are being pursued in silos. Few stakeholders or sectoral experts had a broad understanding of the transition already underway across the energy sector, nor even the optimal endpoint. When policies are not coherent, there is a risk of missing opportunities for synergies and additional benefits, slowing the transition, and undermining public support for the energy shift.
This report employs systems analysis tools and techniques to move beyond silos to integrate insights from a range of disciplines and stakeholders on the key drivers of and constraints on energy transition in Ireland. The aim is to identify systemic approaches that can most effectively drive the energy transition by designing interventions for multiple environmental, social and economic benefits in an integrated manner. The Council recommends five approaches designed to support coherence, reduce frictions, and realise the broader benefits that will cement public support for the energy transition.
Recommendation 1: Create a Cross-Government Energy Framework
To realise synergies and avoid siloed thinking, create a Cross-Government Energy Framework that addresses heat, transport and electricity together in a coherent manner, integrating existing strategies and plans for different policy objectives such as climate, energy poverty, affordability and energy security, and for different energy vectors such as electricity, gas and biofuels. The framework should aim to reduce uncertainty for energy users and investors. It should be consistent with the National Climate Objective and the Climate Action Plan but also integrate the broader social, economic and environmental objectives associated with energy, as captured in the energy doughnut (section 2.2).
Recommendation 2: Make Government Plans for Green Energy Industrial Parks More Ambitious
Some research suggests that public support for the energy transition could trickle up rather than down – in other words, that good experience locally can build support for national action. Government has already outlined plans for Green Energy Industrial Parks to act as a future end use for renewable energy, particularly offshore wind. These plans should be more ambitious, designing-in broader benefits including greater decarbonisation potential and tangible benefits for local communities. This can include provision of local amenities, district heating extended to complementary businesses on site and to the local community, space for nature, sustainable mobility infrastructure connecting industrial parks with local communities and population centres, and durable employment opportunities.
Recommendation 3: Develop A New Focus on Energy Demand
With energy projections pointing to overall growth in energy consumption, energy demand management needs more focus as a necessary tool to meet energy and climate goals. There is a lot of policy and action on energy efficiency across households, businesses, public sector and even large energy users, but more can be achieved. Electrification will deliver energy savings, while compact growth and sustainable transport also offer scope to reduce energy demand. The Council recommends that Government initiate a study on the potential of energy demand management across different sectors to assist in meeting energy transition goals.
Recommendation 4: Increase Energy Literacy and Public Engagement
Communication efforts currently focus on promoting uptake of specific energy efficiency measures or retrofit programmes. However, a broader effort on energy literacy and public engagement is needed as one of the foundational elements for achieving behavioural change. Low levels of energy literacy are an important factor undermining efforts to develop measures such as demand response, uptake of energy efficiency grants, and even sensible cost-saving measures in the home. As part of an overall Cross-Government Framework for Energy, a strategy should be adopted to increase energy literacy across the population and to achieve effective public engagement across the transition.
Recommendation 5: Build Distributed Resilience
The energy transition must do more than cut emissions. It also has to address the needs of households and communities. Together with previous recommendations on energy poverty and affordability (Council Report No.170), the Council recommends that more focus be placed on the energy resilience of households, businesses and communities, and on their capacity to cope with power outages, particularly in isolated areas. Energy efficiency, microgeneration and retrofit support programmes should be expanded to also work towards building the resilience of households, communities and SMEs, particularly in vulnerable areas and for vulnerable households. Building resilience could also be supported through advice, grant assistance, designating local resilience hubs, and appropriate training of tradespeople.
External link
Energy in Demand - Sustainable Energy - Rod Janssen 