Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

129 Chapter 5: Land Policy/strategy/ legislation Explicit conservation target (conserves or limits a land use) Explicit expansion target (will use more land) Possible consequential impact (the target is not explicit but could result in a land use change) ENERGY Ireland’s National Energy and Climate Plan 2021–2030 (June 2020) Phase out coal and peat- fired electricity generation N/A Increase the share of electricity generated from renewable sources to 70%, underpinned by the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme Generate at least 3.5 GW of offshore renewable energy of mainly offshore wind, develop up to 1.5 GW of grid-scale solar energy, and increase onshore wind capacity to up to 8.2 GW Introduce a support scheme for micro-generation Increase the renewable biofuel content of motor fuels, underpinned by the biofuels obligation scheme Introduce legislation to ban the sale of new fossil fuel cars from 2030 Support efforts to increase the share of domestic renewable sources in the energy mix, including wind, solar and bioenergy Facilitate infrastructure projects, including private sector commercial projects, that enhance Ireland’s security of supply and are in keeping with Ireland’s overall climate and energy objectives Renewable Energy Directive ((EU) 2023/2413) (October 2023) N/A N/A A binding overall EU target to reach a share of at least 32% of energy from renewable sources a See Chapter 6 b Land take occurs when soil is sealed for development use, meaning that the soil cannot be used for other important means including supporting ecosystems, flood mitigation or growing food Mt CO 2 eq, megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent GW, gigawatts N/A, not applicable