EPA - Ireland's Environment, An Integrated Assessment - 2020

Chapter 10: Environment and Industry 7. Industry and the National Transition Ambition Demonstrating and measuring sustainability and adapting to climate change are key challenges for Irish industry. Although significant uncertainties exist regarding the extent and impact of climate change in Ireland on industrial sectors, it is vital that industry seeks to reduce its exposure to projected changes. A recent report by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) showed that a group of the world’s largest companies, worth collectively nearly $17 trillion, have valued the cost of climate change risks to their businesses at almost $1 trillion. On the positive side the authors also noted potential gains from business opportunities of almost $2 trillion (CDP, 2019). Therefore, having robust plans in place to adapt to climate change is key to business success. One such approach is the adoption of ISO 14090 ‘Adaptation to climate change – principles, requirements and guidelines’. Achievement of this standard aims to help organisations assess climate change impacts and put plans in place for effective adaptation. Other business-led initiatives such as green accounting and green investments, carbon disclosure and corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes, also contribute to transition imperatives. The National Plan for Corporate Social Responsibility (DJEI, 2017), promoting environmental practices that enhance a company’s profile and competitiveness, remains a very relevant transition-supporting policy. From a national perspective, the government has introduced policy measures and actions aimed at taking action on climate change. Most notably, under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015, there is a requirement for the government to prepare a series of national mitigation plans and national adaptation frameworks. This is covered in Chapter 2, Climate Change. Under the National Adaptation Framework, a series of sectoral adaptation plans have recently been prepared, including a plan for the electricity and gas networks sector (DCCAE, 2019a). This plan highlights the impacts on the energy networks from observed recent weather events and incorporates a vulnerability assessment of the energy network. Gas-fired combustion turbines, for example, had available output reduced by around 8 per cent during the 2018 heat wave in Ireland. Furthermore, at least one existing plant had capacity reduced by up to 50 per cent during that heat wave because of cooling water issues (DCCAE, 2019a). The government’s Climate Action Plan, launched in 2019, sets required targets to achieve Ireland’s ambition to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 (DCCAE, 2019b). Action 42, for example, requires all business representative groups, including Irish Business and Employers Confederation, Business in the Community, Irish Representative Association for Small and Medium Enterprises, Small Firms Association Chambers Ireland and others, to create partnerships of companies that sign up to a climate-neutral trajectory. Cost-effective measures in the Climate Action Plan highlight significant opportunities and potential changes for the industrial sector, particularly in food processing and other manufacturing. In food processing, measures include phasing out the use of oil as a fuel and replacing it with biomass and electricity. In cement production, measures include the use of alternative fuels, such as solid recovered fuels and other waste streams, substituting for fossil fuels. Increasing the use of alternative fuels in the cement sector to 80 per cent by 2030 will help to offset a forecast 40 per cent increase in production over the period (DCCAE, 2019b). An immediate priority of the plan is to establish networks in key sectors, including data centres, pharmaceuticals, and food and drink, to promote industry- led sectoral plans (see Topic Box 10.3). Breakthrough technologies such as carbon capture, utilisation and storage and hydrogen could, in theory, help heavy industries such as cement and chemicals achieve high levels of decarbonisation. Indeed, the future viability of companies in these subsectors may come to depend on the commercialisation of these technologies (CDP Europe, 2020). 273