In December 2024, the Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC) published its proposal for the next series of Carbon Budgets for Ireland. The Carbon Budget represents the total amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that Ireland can release within each Carbon Budget period as legislated for in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021. In Ireland, this is measured over each Carbon Budget five-year period in megatons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2eq) on an economy-wide basis while currently excluding emissions from aviation and maritime. At any point in time the current and next Carbon Budgets are committed, currently Carbon Budget 1 and 2, while future Carbon Budgets are indicative. Entering into the period of Carbon Budget 2 required fixing the emissions ceiling for Carbon Budget 3 and setting the indicative ceiling for Carbon Budget 4, which the CCAC has just proposed. The Council’s proposal is for a Carbon Budget 3 (CB3: 2031-2035) of 160 Mt CO2eq and a provisional Carbon Budget 4 (CB4: 2036-2040) of 120 Mt CO2eq. This means a GHG emissions reduction of at least 6.3% on average year on year to 2040 is required to remain within the Carbon Budgets. The proposed Carbon Budgets equate to a 67% reduction in emissions in 2040 compared to the 2018 baseline. Read more about the implications here https://lnkd.in/gMj4wd3V