Wasteful energy usage noted as carbon emissions falling too slowly
In 2022 transport energy demand rebounded to 95% of pre-Covid levels, with data from January to September of this year pointing to continuing rebounds in petrol, diesel and jet kerosene demand
Irish people are increasingly concerned about climate change but still engage in inefficient behaviours such as heating empty homes, using cars for short journeys and leaning heavily on tumble driers, new reports from the energy watchdog suggest.
The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) said that emissions were not reducing fast enough to allow Ireland to stay within carbon budgets, although it noted that while total energy demands climbed last year, energy-related emissions fell.
The report also suggested that concerns about climate change were now driving efficient energy behaviours more than worry about cost despite spiralling prices in recent years.
The annual Energy in Ireland report profiles trends in the supply and demand of energy and energy-related carbon emissions in 2022 and 2023 while the Behavioural Energy and Travel Tracker (BETT) looks at survey responses to understand people’s energy behaviours and the underlying factors behind them.
The former highlights the twin dependencies of Ireland’s energy supply with 81.6 per cent of the State’s energy imported last year and 85.8 per cent coming from fossil fuels.
Energy emissions in 2022 were the lowest of any year in the past quarter century except 2020 due to the impact of the pandemic. However, the SEAI said the pace of emission reductions was not sufficient to meet our national climate obligations.
In 2022 transport energy demand rebounded to 95 per cent of pre-Covid levels, with data from January to September of this year pointing to continuing rebounds in petrol, diesel, and jet kerosene demand.
SEAI’s analysis indicated that transport emissions this year would likely be higher than last year, at odds with the obligations of our legally-binding carbon budgets.
In a separate but related report the BETT sets out everyday energy behaviours of people from December 2022 to April 2023. Among the findings were that people reported a high understanding of how to save energy and said they were making a substantial effort to use energy efficiently.
However, there were a number of areas in which people are using energy inefficiently. Over the study period more than one in five participants travelled by car for a short journey on a given day, and a similar number used a tumble dryer.
Up to 40 per cent of people heated empty rooms or an unoccupied home, and a quarter of thermostat owners had theirs set to 21°C or higher. Less than half the sample said their home had a thermostat installed in the first place.
The analysis also found that many Irish people were at risk of energy poverty last winter and were therefore likely to be again this winter, with over a third of the sample consistently reporting having difficulty paying their energy bills.
Reporting On:www.irishtimes.com