The government must stop misrepresenting figures and patting itself on the back for failure
The Government is failing miserably to achieve its own retrofitting targets, according to Social Democrats Climate Spokesperson Jennifer Whitmore.
Deputy Whitmore was speaking after the SEAI published its Home Energy Upgrades 2022 annual report.
“The SEAI published its 2022 report today and most of the accompanying headlines referred to a figure of more than 27,000 property upgrades being completed in 2022 – up 80pc on the previous year. Delve a little deeper and the figures don’t look so good.
“The government has set a target of upgrading 500,000 homes to at least a Building Energy Rating of B2 by 2030. However, since 2017, just 18,527 homes have been upgraded to a B2 level. This is just 3.7% of its own target.
“The government’s National Retrofit Plan, published in 2022, notes that emissions from the residential sector from be reduced from 7 Mt CO2eq. in 2018 to between 3.5-4.5 Mt CO2eq. in 2030.
“It further states “we need to greatly increase the depth and volume of retrofits as well as the number of heat pumps installed in order to deliver the required emissions reductions”.
“Light retrofits, like installing attic insulation, will not be sufficient to reduce CO2 emissions to the required level. The government’s own plan is clear about this.
“The government must stop misrepresenting figures and patting itself on the back for failure. The reality is the number of deep retrofits that are being carried out each year is incredibly low – and nowhere near sufficient to reach our targets.
“The government is failing miserably to achieve its own retrofitting targets. It must now tell us how it intends reaching its target of 500,000 homes upgraded to a BER 2 level by 2030 – given more than 480,000 homes need to be upgraded in the next seven years.”
27 March, 2023
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