Review of Climate Action Plan 2025

The Irish Government recently published its Climate Action Plan 2025. Our Planning & Environment team considers the key changes.

What you need to know

• The Climate Action Plan 2025 (CAP25) has been published.
• CAP25 is Ireland’s strategic roadmap for delivering on its climate transition targets. It sets out key actions which must be prioritised over the coming year.
• Delivery on renewable energy, electricity and transport decarbonisation targets is emphasised as a key goal in CAP25.

The Irish Government approved and published its Climate Action Plan 2025 (CAP25) on 15 April 2025.

The Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021 sets out legally binding targets that Ireland must reach to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and achieve climate neutrality by 2050. The aim of the annual climate action plan is to set out the measures that will help Ireland reach its overall commitment.

CAP25 builds on the actions taken over previous years. It sets out the direction of travel for the year ahead, working to ensure that Ireland is prepared to take on the challenges of the second carbon budget period 2026–2030.

Where we are in numbers

CAP25 sets out statistics which highlight the progress Ireland has made over the last year in moving towards its climate goals:

• The first half of 2024 saw a reduction of 3.5% in emissions, as compared with the same period in 2023.
• The greatest reductions are in energy. Emissions in the first half of 2024 from the electricity sector were down over 17%.
• Irish wind farms generated nearly 40% of Ireland’s total electricity demand in the first half of 2024. This makes Ireland third in the world for installed wind power capacity per capita.
• Solar energy is also expanding rapidly. Over 100,000 rooftops are now connected to Ireland’s electricity network.
• Ireland reached the milestone of seeing over a million passenger journeys a day on public transport.

Actions

Building on commitments from previous years, CAP25 sets out the measures and actions required to support the delivery of Ireland’s climate goals across the different sectors:

Renewable energy

The renewable energy targets from Climate Action Plans 2023 and 2024 have been retained and carried over to CAP25. These are:

CAP25 identifies the renewable energy priority actions for 2025, including:

• Develop a framework of supporting policies for the repowering and extension of the life of existing renewable electricity generation capacity. For onshore wind capacity, lifetime extensions and repowering at existing sites will be critical to ensuring that the 80% renewable electricity target is reached.
• Publish the Long Duration Energy Storage Procurement recommendations paper. It is expected that this technology will play a significant role in future decarbonisation of the energy sector.
• Deliver a holistic onshore and offshore network plan blueprint, Net Zero Network Plan.

Electricity demand management

A number of actions identified in CAP25 address electricity demand management, such as:

• Develop consumer-led flexible demand processes.
• Assess potential actions to encourage and incentivise the uptake of domestic and commercial flexible demand technology.

These aim to tackle the increasing electricity demand being seen across Ireland while ensuring national energy security.

Hydrogen

It is also intended that hydrogen will be used to support Ireland’s transition to net-zero, as set out in the previous climate action plan. Read our previous update.

CAP25 builds on this, including actions such as:

• Deliver the actions set out under the National Hydrogen Annual Work Programme for 2025. This programme aims to put in place the appropriate regulatory arrangements to support the future scale-up of the sector as it continues to evolve.
• Procurement Strategy for the Shared Island Fund Eastern Green Hydrogen Corridor Demonstrator Project. This requires formal market engagement to identify a suitable procurement approach, and final project business case development for refuelling station deployment in Dublin and Belfast.

Built environment

The residential sector is on track to meet its 2025 sectoral emissions ceiling. However, commercial and public sector buildings will need to reduce emissions by 2.9% per annum to stay within the 2025 sectoral emissions ceiling.

To help achieve this, several actions have been proposed, including:

• Publish a bill to transpose the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) into Irish law. The EPBD sets out a range of measures to help boost the energy efficiency of buildings across Europe.
• Develop Ireland’s National Building Renovation Plan, as required by the EPBD.
• Publish a roadmap to phase out fossil fuel boilers to align with the EPBD requirements as part of the National Building Renovation Plan.

Transport

According to the 2024 projections from the EPA, transport sectoral emissions are expected to reduce by 29% of 2018 levels by 2030. To stay within the first carbon budget, a 12.4% decrease will be required in both 2024 and 2025 across the sector.

To this end, the 2025 actions for the transport sector will see:

• Roll-out key elements of the EV Infrastructure Strategy and the ongoing delivery of the Destination Charge Point Scheme.
• Commence work to develop the new Sustainable Mobility Policy Action Plan for 2026 to 2030.
• Advance roll-out of walking/cycling infrastructure in line with National Cycle Network and CycleConnects plans.
• BusConnects Dublin: At least one Core Bus Corridor approved at Approval Gate 3, and start construction.
• Based on the All-island Strategic Rail Review, publish a report on which rail projects to progress and deliver by 2035.
• Submit the Finalised Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation National Policy Framework to the European Commission. Read our previous analysis of this topic.
• Review of the National Ports Policy to set a policy framework to contribute to the decarbonisation of maritime transport and the wider logistics chain, and to support the development of Offshore Renewable Energy.

Marine environment

CAP25 identifies that the establishment of a fit-for-purpose offshore regulatory and planning regime is vital for the development of offshore renewable energy.

Key actions identified to achieve this include:

• Prepare Ministerial Guidelines for Competent Authorities on Designated Maritime Area Plans (DMAPs).
• Continue the designation of marine Special Protection Areas.
• Progress marine research and improve the integration of marine data.

Circular economy

CAP25 identifies the importance of the transition to a circular economy and the role this plays in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Some of the actions identified in the sector include:

• Establish an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme for textiles.
• Develop a National Exploration Programme for Critical Raw Materials.

Comment

CAP25 reports that Ireland is making progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, especially in the electricity sector. However, it is clear that more work needs to be done to achieve Ireland’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 51% by 2030. Building on actions from previous years, CAP25 sets out the sector-specific measures that need to be undertaken in 2025 to help Ireland reach these legally binding climate targets.

Notably, renewable energy generation is recognised as a key step in ensuring the continued reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Managing Ireland's Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS), exploring long-duration energy storage, and supporting the repowering and extension of existing renewable electricity infrastructure are key actions under CAP25. These measures aim to help Ireland move closer to its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Ireland’s interconnection also continues to increase in importance, helping Ireland and our European partners balance electricity supply and demand between countries. This will be strengthened by the 500 MW Greenlink Interconnector to Great Britain due to come onstream by mid-2025 and the 700 MW Celtic Interconnector to France in 2027. Additionally, EirGrid and the French Transmission System Operator, RTE, are examining the potential for a second Ireland-France interconnector.

The actions proposed under CAP25 will be supported by the enactment of the Planning and Development Act 2024 and the revised National Planning Framework. Both place greater emphasis on a strategic, streamlined, and long-term approach to planning policy and legislation in the State. These will also aid in greater alignment between national, regional, and local authority levels to deliver on the renewable electricity ambition.

Finally, it is worth noting that CAP25 has not allocated all of the emissions reductions that need to be made in the second carbon budget period 2026-2030 to specific sectors. CAP25 makes provision for recommendations to be made regarding these unallocated savings during the course of the year.

For more information and expert advice on the changes proposed under CAP25 and what this could mean for your business, contact a member of our Planning & Environment team.

The content of this article is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute legal or other advice.