Government dishes out first chunk of €500 million Climate Action Fund

Published by Niall Sargent on November 29, 2018November 29, 2018

November 29th, 2018

Seven projects with the potential to reduce annual emissions by over 200,000 tonnes of carbon has been chosen as the first recipients of funding under the Government’s new Climate Action Fund.

The Fund was established under Project Ireland 2040, under which the State has promised at least €500 million in government funding going toward projects to tackle climate change.

Nearly 100 applications were received and €77 million is now set to be allocated to seven projects, leveraging a total investment of €300 million.

The main funding stream will come from the repurposing of part of the existing petroleum products levy collected by the National Oil Reserves Agency without any additional cost to the Exchequer.

The seven projects include plans from ESB to develop a nationwide, state-of-the-art electric vehicle charging network over the next decade.

The State will provide the semi-state with €10 million to install over one hundred high powered chargers at key locations on the national road network.

In addition, and subject to planning permission and approval, ESB intends to replace 100 old charging points with fast chargers that can recharge a car to 80 per cent battery life in 25 minutes.

Electric car charging Photo: whodol / Pixabay

Gas Networks Ireland will also receive up to €8.5 million to install Ireland’s first transmission connected Central Grid Injection facility for renewable gas and a grant scheme to support 74 compressed natural gas vehicles.

Irish Rail is set to pocket €15 million to design new hybrid power-packs for intercity railcars to reduce diesel use and emissions.

A further €20 million will go to Dublin City Council to capture waste heat generated at the Dublin Waste to Energy Plant and pipe it into homes and businesses in Poolbeg, Ringsend and the Docklands.

South Dublin County Counci will also receive funding to tackle heating issues, with €4.5 million set aside to help establish sustainable district heating in Tallaght.

The Road Management will get up to €17.5 million to retrofit all 326,000 non‐LED Local Authority public lights to high efficiency LED Lanterns.

Public Lighting accounts for almost half of the total energy use of local authorities and is it estimated that the project will reduce CO2 emissions by 40,000 tonnes.

The Three Counties Energy Agency, operating between Wexford, Kilkenny and Carlow, will receive €1.4 million to support the transport sector in reducing fuel consumption by installing monitoring equipment in 1,000 vehicles and providing driving performance training over a two-year period.

The Minister for Climate Action, Richard Bruton TD said that the projects will help make Ireland a “leader in responding to climate change, not a follower”.

“The projects we are supporting under the Fund will support decarbonisation across the transport, heat, electricity and agriculture sectors and demonstrate the types of investments we need to make,” he added.

These projects will now proceed to the validation stage which will include a more detailed examination of the projects, agreement of project outputs and payment timelines.

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