Varadkar to outline Irish climate and emissions targets at Cop28

Meanwhile, current sales of electric vehicles, although improving, are way off the Government's own 945,000 target by 2030, leaving that figure as a "mathematical impossibility" without major new incentives, according to a car data analysis firm.

Mr Varadkar will address world leaders at the UN's climate change summit Cop28 in Dubai today, while Environment Minister Eamon Ryan has insisted that fossil fuel industries must take greater responsibility for climate financing and investment in the shift to renewables.

There are more solar panels in the Netherlands than the entirety of Africa, which has 60% of the world’s solar radiation. 

"This is not fair. This has to change," Mr Ryan said.

His department confirmed that cuts to the solar panel grant for Irish homes will go ahead, saying it had been planned since the beginning of the scheme to phase it down year by year.

More than 22,000 households will receive the grant at a cost of over €55m this year, following on from 10,000 households and almost €24.5m last year. 

Gradual cuts to the scheme were made clear from the beginning, the department said.

The Irish Solar Energy Association (ISEA) called for a rethink.

“There is a climate crisis and we need to respond to that crisis by empowering people to take positive action," said a spokesperson for the ISEA.
This decision will reduce the number of homeowners who can produce their own green electricity, just when we need that green electricity most.

It comes as car fleet tech management firm Geotab cast serious doubt on the plan to have 945,000 EVs on the road by 2030.

According to figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI), so far this year 22,629 new electric cars have been registered in comparison to 15,590 in the same period 2022, it said.

Those numbers, while up yearly, are not nearly enough, according to Geotab vice president for Ireland and the UK, David Savage.

The Government's own internal estimate is that there will be only 416,000 EVs on Irish roads by 2030. Surely it is time to publicly reforecast its own EV targets or set a new year’s resolution to deliver incentives that will kickstart the market.

"As things stand, it continues to be a mathematical impossibility for the Government to reach its 2030 target, unless the entire passenger car market switches to EV purchases overnight," he said.