JOINT IHEEM NI AND ROI 2022 CONFERENCE
Mapping a path to Net Zero for Northern Ireland
Erin Savage, Head of the Energy Strategy Team within Northern Ireland’s Department for the Economy, gave the first keynote presentation on the second day of IHEEM’s joint Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland conference in Dublin. She used her talk to discuss Northern Ireland’s recently published new energy strategy, Path to Net Zero Energy, its key themes, and the key short, medium, and longer-term objectives enshrined in it.
Erin Savage was introduced by IHEEM’s Northern Ireland Branch Chair, Steven Johnston. She began by explaining that her presentation would focus on Path to Net Zero Energy – Northern Ireland’s new energy strategy. This, she explained, ‘sets out the pathway to 2030 that’s going to mobilise the skills, technologies, and behaviours needed to take us towards our vision of Net Zero carbon, and affordable energy, by 2050’. She said: “In doing so, we will make a major contribution to the Climate Change Committee’s pathway to Net Zero carbon by 2050, and also the Northern Ireland Green Growth Strategy.” She explained that she would give delegates an overview of how the province had reached this point, run through some of the Energy Strategy’s main themes, and move on to the Action Plan for 2022.
A UK ‘green first’ The ‘context for energy’ had ‘changed substantially’ since the 2010 Strategic Energy Framework was published. In June 2019; the UK had become the first major world economy to commit to a 100% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 – the Net Zero target representing what Erin Savage dubbed ‘a step-change in the commitment to addressing the climate crisis’. The first step in the development of the new (Northern Irish) Energy Strategy had been a call for evidence published in December 2019, which set out the key issues for consideration – including the role of the consumer, energy efficiency, energy for heat, power, and transport, and ‘others’ – such as security of supply, data, the economy, and new skills and technologies. Northern Ireland’s Department for the Economy had then hosted five public stakeholder workshops focused on these key themes, attended by around 280 people, including individuals from consumer groups, academia, the energy industry, and government departments. In all, over 160 responses were received;
‘‘
Erin Savage: “We will make a major contribution to the Climate Change Committee’s pathway to Net Zero carbon by 2050, and also the Northern Ireland Green Growth Strategy”
these had been shared with five working groups, who took forward the analysis and the review.
Expert panel convened Erin Savage explained: “We also brought together a panel of external independent experts to provide challenge on the emerging policy options, and provide support and advice on the new Energy Strategy, complementing the contributions made by the working groups, and the research commissioned through the Energy Strategy process.” It had become clear that no one could predict the future of Northern Ireland’s energy system ‘right the way out to 2050’, with a wide range of potential
approaches over the next three decades mooted to deliver the Net Zero carbon energy mix. Thus, to demonstrate ‘how different energy systems could look’, the Department developed a range of potential scenarios using a publicly available, open-source energy transition model built specifically for Northern Ireland.
Policy options consultation The speaker explained that the next stage in the Energy Strategy’s development was a policy options consultation, which launched in March 2021, receiving hundreds of responses, ‘many times more than any previous engagement on energy’, demonstrating the high
October 2022 Health Estate Journal 17
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124
