NEW EMISSIONS DATA released by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland shows that while the residential sector is on track to stay within its carbon budget come the end of the year, the energy and transport sectors are lagging behind.  

The SEAI’s provisional data shows that transport emissions in the first half of 2025 were 2% lower than the same period last year, while emissions from electricity use remained largely the same despite an increase in demand of 2.8%.

Still, the SEAI said its best estimate is that Ireland’s electricity sector emissions will exceed its carbon budget sometime in November and that the transport sector had already emitted more than its allocation of carbon by September.

The Authority said that renewable energy generation in the first half of 2025 did not increase significantly compared to the same period last year and that the increased demand for electricity was largely met by power imported from other countries. 

Because the transport sector has already exceeded its first carbon budget allocation, it is now eating into the amount it has been allocated for the next budget, which covers 2026 to 2030.

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