Project Ireland 2040 with €22bn for Climate Action

The Irish government has published its new national development plan ‘Project Ireland 2040’ which outlines the country’s move to a low carbon economy bolstered with 116 billion euros. 22bn have been earmarked for climate protection measures, including electric transport initiatives.

With a total investment of 116 billion euros, the government in Dublin wants to push the Emerald isles toward an even greener future that includes phasing out coal.

With regards to transport, the measures include passenger vehicles as well as buses. Of the 22 billion euros earmarked for climate action, some will go into the installation of EV charging infrastructure. The aim is to have half a million electric vehicles on Ireland’s road by 2030. This is also the point at which fossil fuel powered cars won’t be able to get a license plate any longer (we reported). By 2045 all combustion engine vehicles, including old ones, will be banned.

For public fleets, such change will come even sooner. Bus operators must stop buying diesel vehicles from July, 1 next year. In fact, Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann will be forbidden from buying anything but electric buses from 2019.

Ireland also recently increased EV subsidies for electric taxis. The grants stand on top the existing EV and PHEV subsidies available to any Irish driver, which include a 5,000 euro rebate on vehicle registration tax, a 3,800 euros grant from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, as well as an upcoming grant aimed to support the construction of home-charging points (we reported).

To allocate funds for said measures, a new climate action fund will be established. The fund will have an initial allocation of 100 million euros with at least 50m euros per year thereafter.

To finance the fund, the government plans to repurpose part of the existing petroleum products levy of 2 cents per litre that has been in place since 2007.

irishtimes.com, gov.ie (pdf, p 75)