CLOSE TO 46% of new cars in Ireland last year were electric or hybrid.

In 2024, some 45.8% of new licenses were electric or hybrid, a slight increase from the figure of 45% the year previous.

However, it’s a huge leap from the 1.7% figure recorded in 2015.

Hybrid cars were more popular than electric ones and grew from 25.8% of new licences in 2023 to 31.1% in 2024.

However, electric cars licensed for the first time fell from 19.2% of the total in 2023 to 14.7% last year.

The figures come from the Central Statistics Office’s (CSO) ‘Environmental Indicators’ report.

Environmental Indicators infographic CSO CSO

The report also shows that airport passenger figures continue to increase and last year there were 40.7 million international passenger journeys through Irish airports, up 4.5% on 2023 and up 7.4% compared with the pre-pandemic 2019 figure.

There were also 54.2 million Luas journeys last year, up 12.5% on 2023, while there were 268.3 million passenger bus journeys, up 7.5% on the year previous.

Renewable energy accounted for 40.2% of electricity generation in Ireland last year, up from an average of 5.1% in 1990-1994.

Wind has been the main source of renewable energy production in Ireland in recent years.

In 2024, 55.6% of renewable energy production was attributable to wind power.

However, Ireland is the fifth-highest user of oil in the EU, with 51.2% of Ireland’s energy use relying on this fuel, significantly above the EU average of 37.4%.

Ireland’s emissions of sulphur oxides, which is emitted by the burning of fossil fuels, fell by 21.3% from 9,350 tonnes in 2022 to 7,360 tonnes in 2023.

The 2023 figure was also 95.8% lower than the average 1990-1994 figure, and emissions from power stations accounted for most of this reduction.

Elsewhere, Ireland generated 631 kilograms of municipal waste per capita in 2023, the fifth highest number in the EU.

However, the proportion of municipal waste sent to landfill fell from an average of 66.5% between 2001-2004 to 14.4% in 2023.

Meanwhile, the CSO found that bird numbers were stable or in decline when comparing 1998 with 2024.

Common bird numbers were stable, dropping by just 0.1% over this period.

However, common farmland birds fared less well, falling by 8.0% from 1998 to 2024.