The Environmental Protection Agency in Ireland has warned that the country will miss its 2020 greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions targets for sectors not covered by the EU emissions trading system.
Ireland’s 2020 non-ETS emission reduction target is 20% below 2005 levels, but the agency predicts by 2020 Ireland will only have cut them by between 6% and 11%.
The non-ETS sector covers agriculture, transport, residential, commercial, non-energy intensive industry and waste sectors. Agriculture and transport will account for more than three-quarters of these emissions by 2020, according to the agency.
Its projections suggest that agriculture emissions will increase by 6%–7% between 2014 and 2020, while those from transport will rise by between 10% and 16%. New obligations for Ireland to cut emissions for the years 2021–30 will be set later this year.