Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

281 Chapter 11: Environment and Transport Overall demand One of the difficulties in reducing emissions from transport is that the demand for transport is constantly increasing. The country has returned to normality after the COVID-19 pandemic (Topic Box 11.2), and recent figures show that the demand for public transport and the volume of traffic on our roads is increasing to record levels. Topic Box 11.2  COVID-19 impacts on mobility demand The transport sector, and transport movement patterns, were directly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Decreases in car traffic volumes of around 30% between 2019 and 2020 were due to lockdowns and reduced travel. A partial recovery was observed in 2021 and the traffic volume increased further in 2022, almost reaching pre-pandemic levels. Provisional road transport emissions figures for 2023 were 0.3% higher than in 2022, which may suggest a stabilisation of emissions, despite the vehicle fleet increasing by 3%. Road transport emissions in 2023 were approximately 4% below pre-COVID emissions in 2019 (EPA, 2024a). With regard to freight transport, starting from June 2020, volumes of heavy goods vehicle (HGV) traffic generally surpassed those of 2019 (CSO, 2023b). Since then, the volumes of HGV traffic have grown steadily each year by a few per cent. The COVID-19 pandemic is having several long-lasting impacts on the sector. Those who were able to work from home between 2002 and 2016 accounted for about 5% of the workforce whereas the 2022 Census showed that over 11% of employees were working from home five days a week (CSO, 2023c) (Figure 11.2). Recent research suggests that home working is an option that the public wish to continue, and this will result in changes in commuting patterns and a reduction in transport-derived air pollutant emissions (Stefaniec et al. , 2024). Figure 11.2  Percentage of people working from home, 2002–2022 0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 5.1% 11.2% 4.9% 4.6% 6.4% % working from home 2002 2006 2011 2016 2022 Year Source: Compiled from data in CSO, 2023c Another element of remote working that received a boost during the COVID-19 pandemic was an increase in remote working hubs. Research has demonstrated that those using a remote working hub could avoid 1.126 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions by using one of these hubs for three days a week for a year (Caulfield and Charly, 2022).