Ireland's emissions fell by only 2 percent last year

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Ireland's emissions fell by only 2 per cent last year, according to the latest assessment by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The decrease is less than half the reduction required, with the agency warning meeting the targets will now be ''extremely challenging''.

Ireland has signed up to national and international obligations to fight climate change, with key targets of cutting emissions in half by 2030.

Dr. Cara Augustenborg, Professor of Environmental Policy at UCD, says transport almost derailed the efforts in other sectors that saw a decrease:

"We had a six percent increase on 2021, now it's still a little bit down from pre-covid but obviously it's rising as we get back to business as usual, it's still on the rise."

"It really shows that we have to get out of this mindset that it's all about electric vehicles. Electric vehicles are not going to be the solution to our transport issues."