Ban on domestic use of coal and peat by 2030 mooted

The possibility of coal and peat no longer being used to heat homes in this country by 2030 has been raised after the Climate Change Advisory Council finalised two five-year carbon budgets earlier this week.

A technical report on the carbon budgets, which was published on the Climate Change Advisory Council's website, refers to modelling which suggests "a complete removal of coal and peat for residential heating, and up to 600,000 retrofits, between 2020 and 2030."

Offaly TD Carol Nolan criticised the carbon budgets' target of reducing Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions by 51% within a decade, saying this would disproportionately affect people in rural areas.

"The Climate Change Advisory Council is suggesting that a complete removal of coal and peat for residential heating take place between 2020 and 2030," said Deputy Nolan.

"This is despite the fact that Eamon Ryan promised us in a press statement on September that in order to accommodate those with rights to harvest sod peat, no ban on its burning will be introduced.

"This is exactly the kind of creeping criminalisation that I have been warning about for some time," she said, and predicted that the measures would result in a rural version of the water charges protests in the last decade.

Seamus Boland, CEO of the Moate-based Irish Rural Link group, said climate action was necessary but that the Government needed to show more urgency in coming up with measures that would help people adjust to the changes.

"Irish Rural Link has always said that we can't ignore climate change, and we can't ignore the measures we need to take. It's very urgent," said Mr Boland.

"If we're not careful, and we don't take action now, we will have a very unfriendly country in terms of weather events as the years progress. We're already seeing evidence of that. "However, what we are asking is that the urgency which the Irish Government created to defeat Covid should be applied to this.

"If you are going to ban coal and peat by 2030, the plan with that has to mean every single house in this country should be insulated, and should have the alternative heating system (in place by then).

"Government has got to find a way with grants, or a mixture of low-interest loans guaranteed by Government, to help people convert their houses and their farms."

He felt there was an opportunity in rural areas for farmers to have solar panels installed on their sheds in order to generate electricity for their own use and for selling to the national grid.

"There's at least 150,000 farms in the country. Let's say 100,000 of those have ample sheds, not alone to supply their own electric needs but also to contribute to the grid," he commented.

"What we're saying is that the (carbon reduction) targets are there but the accompanying plan is not there, and it has to be there."

Macra na Feirme predicted this week that the carbon budgets would affect every aspect of young farmers' lives, both personal and professional, for decades to come.

"There are reports of huge numbers of jobs lost in the agriculture sector as a result of the carbon budgets. This could be the downfall of rural Ireland and that should not be forgotten about," said Macra na Feirme president John Keane.