Ireland struggling to cut emissions, putting 2030 targets in doubt - PwC

The world is falling “dangerously short” of achieving the change required to limit global warming and Ireland needs to work harder to reduce emissions to stand any chance of achieving its 2030 climate targets, professional services group PwC has warned.

In its latest net zero economy index report, a global study that tracks the rate of change required to limit warning to 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial era, the accounting and consultancy group said the global economy needed to cut emissions seven times faster than the current rate.

Over the past year, global emissions fell by 2.5 per cent, well short of the year-on-year reduction of 15.2 per cent that is required. Because of the slow rate of progress, global emissions will now have to fall by 17.2 per cent each year, PwC said.

In the Republic, emissions fell just 2 per cent last year, according to Environmental Protection Agency data, meaning carbon output is on pace to fall by just 29 per cent to the end of the decade, compared to the 51 per cent cut set out in the Climate Act.

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Ireland, along with the rest of the world, faces “significant challenges” in meeting its short and medium term climate ambitions, PwC said. Since 2000, no G20 country has achieved a decarbonisation rate of more than 11 per cent in a single year with only the UK coming close in 2014 after reducing emissions by 10.9 per cent.

“The fact the world needs to decarbonise seven times faster is a spur to action, not a counsel of despair,” said David McGee, ESG leader at PwC Ireland. “While the overall pace has to pick up rapidly, dramatic change is possible when business and policymakers align. The rapid acceleration of the deployment of wind and solar in several regions shows change can happen. The world is decoupling growth from carbon emissions, now we need that trend to become a surge.”

On a positive note, the report highlights a sharp increase in renewable energy adoption over the last 12 months. Solar adoption increased by 24.4 per cent globally, the highest growth rate ever recorded, while wind energy usage increased more than 13 per cent.

However, this growth was primarily concentrated in China, the US and Europe and needs to be “echoed” across the globe for it to meaningful, it said.

Against this backdrop, organisations need to have a near-term focus on climate transition plans to “navigate the complex shift” taking place in the economy towards low-carbon activity, Mr McGee said.

“To achieve our global ambition, and starting this year, it is time to embrace a bold, commercial and disruptive phase of global redevelopment that is driven by mass deployment of clean technologies, accelerated by practical innovation, and scaled with sustainable finance. The result of our choices now will be definitive for future generations who neither chose nor deserve a flawed inheritance.”