What is the carbon tax?

In 2013, this tax was introduced with the intended purpose to reduce carbon emissions as part of Ireland’s strategy to support a greener environment. It is essentially a penalty placed on the use of oil, gas, coal and peat which emit CO2 when burned. This is already levied at €20 per tonne of CO2, however, the Government is due to increase this tax in the 2020 Budget. This is due to a decision made by the Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action and their report on how Ireland can decarbonise. Richard Bruton, the Minister for Climate Action, has confirmed that the likely course of action will be to increase the tax to €30 per tonne with a view to steadily increasing until 2030 to €80 per tonne. 

 

The Citizens’ Assembly has made two recommendations;

The first is that the state should take a leadership role in addressing climate change by retrofitting public buildings, having renewable generation on public buildings and using low carbon public transport.

The second recommendation deals with home construction, renovations and retrofitting. According to the Report of the Joint Committee on Climate Action, every home will need to obtain a Building Energy Ratings Certificate (BER) by date that is yet unspecified. This will be used to identify homes in need of upgrading.

It is believed that the BER certificate will be used to implement a carbon tax per household based on the rating. The Committee notes that 75,000 homes need to be retrofitted each year in order to meet the 2020 energy efficiency target.

 

In Summary

Every upgrade you can make to make your home more energy efficient will benefit you greatly in the future. Each step will further insulate your home driving down the need to use fossil fuels. This tax is a way to shift our behaviour as consumers and to show us that making better choices for the environment will invariably end up as better choices for our pockets.