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

Chapter 11: Environment and Transport Environment and Transport 1. Introduction Transport systems provide connectivity for delivering the goods, services, amenities and employment that underpin human wellbeing. A sustainable, accessible and efficient transport system is not only important for welfare but has a key function in trade and the economy. It also facilitates tourism and is an employer and source of government revenue in itself. Yet transport is also a major consumer of energy and material resources, and a key source of environmental pressures in Ireland, particularly of greenhouse gases, air pollutants and noise. It takes up large swathes of land and contributes to urban sprawl, the fragmentation of habitats and the sealing of surfaces (EEA, 2019a). Reducing the impact of transport systems is one of the biggest challenges to delivering a sustainable and low- carbon economy and society. The European Environment Agency (EEA), in its state of the environment report 2020, highlighted transport and mobility systems as particularly damaging to the environment. The EEA reported that transport is one of the key sectoral areas where system change is needed (EEA, 2019a). Designing a sustainable transport and mobility system needs a managed policy-driven transformation, a path in which the driving forces behind the environmental pressures are avoided, shifted and improved. The current path presents great challenges, with increased travel demand, congestion and environmental pressures, affecting quality of life, economic competitiveness and the environment. Continuing on this path risks deepening lock-in of undesirable outcomes long into the future. This chapter explores the environmental pressures, their underlying driving forces and the responses required to move on to a path of sustainability in the transport sector. A sustainable path is characterised not only by lower environmental pressures, but also by win-win outcomes, for human health and wellbeing, for cleaner and quieter town and city centres, and for the economy. 2. Environmental Pressures from Transport Energy Consumption Transport is the largest energy-consuming sector in Ireland, with a 42 per cent share of final consumption, most of which is imported oil. Consumption of energy has been strongly driven by economic and population growth, but also by decades of public and private choices that affect the transport system. Figure 11.1 shows that growth in energy consumption exceeded that of the economy until 2007. This was followed by continual declines until 2012, and a resumption as the economy recovered. Consumption in 2018 was 25 per cent higher than in 2012, having increased every year since then. Aviation alone grew by 7.9 per cent in 2018, accounting for 21 per cent of energy used for transport, second only to private cars, and more than heavy and light goods vehicles combined (SEAI, 2019a). The continuing growth in transport energy consumption is a major concern for the two headline environmental pressures that arise from transport: greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. Figure 11.1 shows that increases in energy consumption have driven near-linear increases in transport carbon dioxide emissions, despite increased electrification and biofuels. 281