JOINT IHEEM NI AND ROI 2022 CONFERENCE
the first year of delivery will also focus on fuel poverty.” On the ‘Grow the green economy’ principle, Erin Savage said the Department would focus on generating local and export market opportunities, ensuring that Northern Irish companies can compete for UK and global opportunities in low and zero carbon energy and technologies. This would involve the delivery of significant funding for innovation, and a specific focus on the hydrogen economy, plus identifying the skills needed to realise these economic opportunities and support people into secure, well-paid jobs.
The ‘do more with less’ principle Erin Savage explained that the ‘do more with less’ principle entailed using less energy, and utilising the energy we do use more efficiently – which should help lower energy bills, and reduce carbon emissions She said: “We’ll focus on supporting improvements in existing building schemes, while also progressing higher standards for new buildings.” Turning to replacing fossil fuels, the speaker said developing more renewable energy sources was clearly a priority. “For the power sector,” she explained, “we’re prioritising a new support scheme to enable the development of a diverse mix of renewable energy technologies for the offshore sector, while for low carbon heat, we’ll take forward demonstrator projects to build skills and evidence for the roll-out of any future support, and examine more specific legislation changes that may facilitate development.” The Department was also looking at the role of local renewable gas, and taking forward work to deliver electric vehicle infrastructure.
A new emphasis The speaker said the Department for the Economy required a new emphasis on flexibility and demand-side services to manage its system efficiently, minimise costs, and ensure security of supply. To this end, it would develop a plan to ‘lay the foundation’ for a more digitised system, better data access, and more efficient markets to provide value for those new capabilities. Key ‘cross-cutting’ issues for delivery would include a focus on legislation and regulation in support of the ‘vision and objectives’ of the Energy Strategy, and the ongoing improvement of the Department’s evidence base to support those policy objectives and
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Northern Ireland’s Green Growth Strategy ‘provides the framework to tackle climate change, improve our environment, and grow our economy’, the speaker explained.
enable reporting on the outcome. This, Erin Savage said, would include both reviewing how legislative and governance bases for energy regulators elsewhere support key decarbonisation targets, and examining both the short and long-term regulatory support for energy policy objectives. She added: “This will expand the current energy system modelling work to consider our costs. We will supplement this with further work exploring the economics of different energy sources for use across heat, power, and transport.” As part of this, the Department for the Economy would review relative financial incentivisation across all energy-related support schemes.
Greater co-ordination across government Implementing the strategy would require ‘even greater coordination across government’. “As with the development of the Strategy itself, the Department for the Economy will provide leadership across the energy landscape to deliver this,” Erin Savage explained, adding: “We’ve implemented a new Energy
Erin Savage: “We will ensure close coordination with delivery and reporting in the Climate Action Plan. We plan to work with local authorities to map where current capabilities and responsibilities exist, and identify gaps or constraints in delivering our vision”
20 Health Estate Journal October 2022
The Energy Strategy ‘Action Plan’, published on 20 January this year, outlines the actions to support delivering a 56% reduction in Northern Ireland’s energy-related emissions by 2030.
Strategy Programme Board to oversee and coordinate delivery of the Strategy and the associated policies. Given the very significant contribution this strategy will make to Northern Ireland’s climate commitments, we will ensure close coordination with delivery and reporting in the Climate Action Plan. We plan to work with local authorities to map where current capabilities and responsibilities exist, and identify gaps or constraints in delivering our vision. The ‘one-stop-shop’ will also provide additional support once established.”
Regular progress reports The Department for the Economy plans to review the Strategy every five years, beginning in 2025, and to publish an annual progress report on the delivery actions against the Strategy, presenting new and updated actions each year. Erin Savage said: “These will enable us to track our identified metrics, and monitor progress, to refresh and update the Action Plan, including any new actions identified, and also provide an overview of all strategic developments. The first progress report will cover the period up until March 2023.” She concluded by telling delegates: “So, if you’d like to be kept up to date on the Strategy and Action Plan, you can find all the information on the website on the screen, and if you have any questions about any of the policy areas, please email the team at the address shown, and we will put you in touch with the relevant policy lead. Thank you for listening.”
Courtesy of the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), Northern Ireland
Courtesy of the Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland
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