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

Ireland’s Environment – An Integrated Assessment 2020 Figure 12.4  Actions to improve ambient air quality (Source: EPA) 09/2020 Pedestrian and cycle-friendly networks Clean public transport systems Low-emission zones efficient buildings Updating of old heating systems Restrictions on solid fuel use systems City or district heating Do you really need to light your open fire or stove? Make your house more energy efficient and move to a clean form of home heating Think about each journey you make? Is there a cleaner alternative? Consider an electric vehicle for your next purchase What can you do? Grants available from SEAI Recharge network for electric vehicles should be expanded for Twitter Alerts sign up to @EPAAirQuality EPA’s ‘better ways to heat your home’ If you must, consult the Many residential properties in Ireland are poorly insulated. The Climate Action Plan (Government of Ireland, 2019) stated that over 80 per cent of homes and other buildings in Ireland assessed for their Building Energy Rating (BER) have a rating of C or worse. Consequently, much of the energy used to heat homes is lost rapidly because of poor insulation (SEAI, 2018). This entails ongoing costs for households, reduces comfort and can lead to health issues, including increases in winter morbidity and mortality rates (DCCAE, 2017). Energy poverty is a critical issue for vulnerable groups and individuals. The combination of poor insulation and fossil energy heating systems represents a significant systemic and household-level lock-in to energy-related emissions. There are considerable benefits to addressing these lock-ins through reducing energy waste and losses (e.g. through increased building energy efficiency). This improves comfort and has long-term cost savings and health and climate benefits. Future housing and building standards should be designed to provide energy-efficient and cost-effective housing and building. The nearly zero energy building standards came into force for public buildings in January 2019 and will come into force for all other buildings in January 2021 (eISB, 2019). Small-scale energy solutions such as solar panels and emerging energy storage solutions can contribute to reduced dependence on combustion for energy and generate energy for community use, thereby increasing resilience. Deployment of these standards and solutions can ensure energy security comfort and low operational costs along with high air quality and low to zero carbon dioxide emissions. Without effective efficiency measures, current business and residential energy use is inefficient and costly and contributes to air pollution, with impacts on human health and the environment. The continued use of fossil energy in heating systems is a significant contributor to climate change. Its replacement with cleaner options such as heat pumps can be enabled by increasing the energy efficiency of homes and buildings by the use of insulation and retrofitting. Modern buildings are more energy efficient than older ones and future buildings can contribute to distributed micro-energy generation and storage. Dealing with the significant legacy of poorly insulated buildings is a significant challenge. This can be addressed by reducing energy waste and loss through deep retrofits. These involve extensive insulation and energy efficiency measures and can be costly. 6 However, schemes exist or are emerging to assist in such renovations. These investments, coupled with a greater use of renewables on the electricity grid and the phasing out of peat, coal and oil use, can significantly reduce or eliminate the air pollution and climate impacts from housing and the wider built environment. A wider range of schemes is available to enhance the energy efficiency of businesses. 7 6 https://www.seai.ie/grants/home-energy-grants/ 7 https://www.seai.ie/business-and-public-sector/business-grants-and- supports/ 312