Responsibility for monitoring Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions falls to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who prepare our national emissions inventories and projections. These publications allow Government to assess progress towards decarbonisation targets across a range of sectors. The transport sector, for its part, accounts for about 12 MtCO2 or 20% of Ireland’s emissions; transport emissions will need to be at least halved by 2030 in line with Programme for Government commitments.
The National Energy Balance, which is produced by SEAI, presents detailed information on how and where energy is used in Ireland for a given year—including showing the flow of energy from production and transformation to total final consumption. This information is useful in ascertaining the emission profile of the various segments in the transport sector. Using information from the 2019 National Energy Balance, breakdown of transport emissions in 2019 is estimated to be as shown in the table below.
Breakdown of Transport Emissions (2019)
|
ktoe
|
|
Transport
|
5,228
|
%
|
Road Private Car
|
2,075
|
39.69
|
International Aviation
|
1,110
|
21.24
|
Road Freight
|
787
|
15.05
|
Unspecified
|
463
|
8.86
|
Road Light Goods Vehicle
|
271
|
5.18
|
Fuel Tourism
|
245
|
4.68
|
Public Passenger Services
|
137
|
2.63
|
Navigation
|
89
|
1.71
|
Rail
|
44
|
0.85
|
Domestic Aviation
|
6
|
0.11
|
Source: SEAI