The National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) is a ten-year integrated document mandated by the European Union to each of its member states in order for the EU to meet its overall greenhouse gases emissions targets. Following feedback from an EU-wide assessment of draft NECP submissions, EU members are required to submit updated final NECPs for the period 2021-2030. The Energy and Climate Plan addresses all five dimensions of the EU Energy Union: decarbonisation, energy efficiency, energy security, internal energy markets and research, innovation and competitiveness.
The plan establishes key measures to address the five dimensions of the EU Energy Union: 1) Decarbonisation : to reduce emissions from sectors outside the EU's Emissions Trading System, enhance carbon pricing to create behavioural change and avoid locking in carbon intensive technologies, eliminate non-recyclable plastic and impose higher fees on the production of materials which are difficult to recycle, promote the increased use of domestic harvested wood in longer lived product, mainstream biodiversity across the decision making process in the State, increase electricity generated from renewable sources to 80%, etc; 2) Energy efficiency: to set stricter requirements for new buildings and substantial refurbishment, installing 680,000 heatpumps over the period 2021-2030, and scaling/improving the Sustainable Energy Communities and Better Energy Communities 3) Energy security: to support efforts to increase indigenous renewable sources in the energy mix, including wind, solar and bioenergy, etc; 4) Internal energy market: continue to deepen the integration of IRL’s wholesale electricity market and its regulation with the EU internal energy market (IEM), etc; 5) Research, innovation and competitiveness: to increase investment in knowledge-based capital, to strengthen delivery of public funding for basic and applied research to meet Ireland’s decarbonisation objectives, etc.
