JOINT IHEEM NI AND ROI 2022 CONFERENCE


consistent with the Sixth Carbon Budget (required under the Climate Change Act, which provides advice to Ministers on the volume of greenhouse gases the UK can emit between 2033 and 2037). Based on the objectives and the policies proposed in the Strategy, the team has modelled expected changes to emissions from residential buildings, transport, services, and industry, using the Northern Ireland Energy Transition Model. The speaker said: “Successfully achieving our objectives means that by 2030 there will be significant reductions in energy demand and lower carbon emissions from energy across all sectors. Going forward, we will use monitoring frameworks to assess, and, if necessary, set, further targets to support progress towards that overarching vision.”


Five key principles Erin Savage explained that the Northern Irish Energy Strategy is centered around delivering on five key principles. She expanded: “The first is placing you at the heart of our energy future. We plan to make energy as simple as possible for everyone in society, and to develop policies that enable and protect consumers throughout the energy transition.” Affordability and fairness would be key in all policy decisions. Despite the success the UK has had using its ‘world-leading wind resource’ to generate renewable electricity, she noted that our continued reliance on fossil fuels for heat, power, and transport, brought with it ‘substantial price volatility’, as seen over the last few months, while when global prices rose, our energy bills increased, with this money lost to the local economy. She added: “We want to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, and become more self-sufficient, strengthening our energy security.”


Growing the ‘green economy’ The next of the five key principles was to ‘grow the green economy’, with plans to create new jobs, and grow a skills base for the low carbon economy, ‘through


‘‘


Erin Savage: “Under the ‘Placing you at the Heart’ principle, we plan to support the public on their journey to affordable Net Zero carbon energy by 2050 via accessible information, independent and trusted advice, and the right level of protection”


innovation and support’, and, as Erin Savage put it, ‘focusing on our competitive strengths’, including a new Hydrogen Centre of Excellence. Through the ‘do more with less’ principle, the Department for the Economy would set clear targets, standards, and regulations, ‘to drive improvements in energy efficiency, provide support to invest in improvements in buildings, and help consumers make change that will dramatically reduce their energy use’. These measures would include setting of minimum standards for energy efficiency in buildings, funding and support for retrofit, building regulations for new buildings, and a new local transport strategy. She continued: “We will also aim to


replace fossil fuels with renewable energy, by growing our self-sufficient renewable base, supported by sustainable renewable imports, and use these to decarbonise power, heat, and transport.” Support schemes for renewable electricity and low carbon heat would be brought forward, along with trials and demonstrations on emerging heat solutions. The fifth principle involved creating ‘a flexible, resilient, and integrated power system’, the speaker explained, integrating renewables across heat, power, and transport, and thus ‘creating value for consumers, and enhancing security of supply’. By implementing this path to Net Zero, energy in Northern Ireland would – Erin Savage predicted – have changed considerably by 2030, with carbon emissions reduced significantly through energy efficiency measures, consumer engagement, changing transport patterns, and a system that delivers a much greater


proportion of energy from renewable and lower carbon sources.


Energy Strategy Action Plan The speaker’s next focus was the Energy Strategy Action Plan, published on 20 January this year, which outlines the actions to support delivering a 56% reduction in Northern Ireland’s energy-related emissions by 2030, ‘on the pathway to deliver that 2050 vision of Net Zero carbon and affordable energy’. She said: “Including the year 2022, there are only 28 years until the clock strikes 2050, and delivering these actions this year is integral to delivering the overall strategy. The actions in the Action Plan 2022 will be taken forward by central government and our partners, and we will report on the progress achieved in the first quarter of 2023.” Erin Savage said the Department for


the Economy intended that this ‘closely managed approach’ to this short- term action planning and reporting would demonstrate the Government’s commitment to the delivery of the agreed Energy Strategy over the longer term. The Action Plan and the Path to Net Zero would also, she said, make a meaningful contribution to a number of the Programme for Government Outcomes. She said: “Under the ‘Placing you at the Heart’ principle, we plan to support the public on their journey to affordable Net Zero carbon energy by 2050 via accessible information, independent and trusted advice, and the right level of protection. To begin with, we will make significant progress on the one-stop shop, and as costs and fairness are key considerations in the energy transition,


October 2022 Health Estate Journal 19


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