Ireland's GHG Emissions

In 1990, Ireland 's GHG emissions were 55.5 million tonnes (Mt) of CO2 equivalents. By 2001, this figure had risen to 70.7 Mt.   By 2009, emissions had decreased significantly to 62.32 Mt. This is below the emissions limit of 62.8 Mt for Ireland that was agreed under the Kyoto Protocol.

To estimate how near Ireland is to its Kyoto Protocol limit, national emissions for 2008 and 2009 must be taken into account. Additionally, the impact of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme in 2008 and 2009 and forest sinks must also be included.The table below shows how close Ireland is to its Kyoto target using provisional data from 1990 – 2009.

The main contributing sectors to our GHG emissions are agriculture, energy and transport. See diagram below for overall emission trends in 2009. More detailed graphs on emissions from these sectors can be found on the following pages.

Residential energy consumption is an important subsector when considering Ireland 's GHG emissions. However, emissions are not as high as from other sectors, such as agriculture. In 2009, emissions from this sector decreased by 0.9% from 7.57Mt in 2008 to 7.5Mt. This reflects a slight decrease in demand for energy. This is mainly due to a trend towards oil and natural gas heating, rather than carbon-intensive fuels such as coal and peat.  

Waste production is an important source of CH4 emissions. This is mainly due to the conditions of landfill sites, which are still the principal means of waste disposal in Ireland . Since 1995, there has been a slight reduction in emissions from the waste sector. This is due to the collection and utilisation of landfill gas at a number of sites around the country and also to increased recycling. Since 2006 emissions from the waste sector have decreased from 1.44Mt to 1.19 Mt. Indeed, in   2009 emissions from this sector were the lowest in twenty years. Overall, the reduction in emissions has been 8.46% .

Industrial and commercial emissions increased between 1994 and 2001 to a peak of 12.55 Mt, but then decreased steadily to a 20-year low of 9.25Mt in 2009. There was a substantial decline in emissions between 2008 and 2009 of 20%. This is reflective of the dramatic decrease in construction activity during the current recession. Data form the EU Emissions Trading Scheme show that CO2 emissions in the cement sector decreased by 38% (1.30Mt) between 2008 and 2009..

In 2009, Ireland|’s greenhouse gas emissions were lower than any year since 1997. However, when the combined emissions for 2008 and 2009 are totalled, we are still 6.21 Mt above our Kyoto target after 2 years of the Kyoto Protocol period. See table above for further information.