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An Opportunity Green Ireland study finds Dublin Airport third worst in carbon emissions, warning that Ireland's removal of passenger caps could cause the country to exceed its carbon budget by 2035. The report highlights the impact of increased air travel, the lack of rail links, and the potential global emissions savings if Ireland were to clamp down on aviation.
New research shows Dublin Airport is one of the highest aviation emitters in Europe Research by Opportunity Green Ireland looked at 20 airports and 10 European countries to find out how well they are doing in terms of the carbon budget.
“Dublin Airport has come in third worst, and we’re looking at the entire carbon budget blown by 2035,” Sorcha Tunney, the senior manager of Opportunity Green Ireland, said onOpportunity Green Ireland undertook this research with Transport and Environment which is an advocacy group for clean transport and energy. They looked at a carbon budget for airports aligned with an increase of 1.7 degrees Celsius, which is less ambitious than the targets agreed under the Paris Agreement.
The results showed that even with tech advances such as better aircraft, Ireland is still going to blow that budget by a significant amount.
“This is happening at the exact moment that the Dublin passenger cap has been removed. While many European countries are looking to legislate for caps on carbon budgets like the UK and France, Ireland has legislated to remove it,” Ms Tunney said.
“Ireland plans to increase numbers up to 60 million, is what the Minister for Transport has said. If we are looking at the emissions, we’re looking at 14 million tonnes of Co2. That’s nearly half of Ireland’s total annual budget in 2024,” she said. Kevin Byrne, airport safety and security auditor, joined the conversation and said Ireland is a unique case in particular because it is an island nation and cannot connect to the train system in Europe.
Last year, according to the CSO, 6.4 million tourists came into Ireland, and they spent €5.5bn, Mr Byrne said.
“If we were to cancel aviation tomorrow, which we could do, that would remove 4% of the emissions of the world, which is not insubstantial, but what would that do for Ireland? ” Mr Byrne said. He said that Ireland doesn't have the port capacity to support the extra sailings we would need to bring people to and from the island.
Mr Byrne said aircraft still need liquid fuel, but sustainable aviation fuel will bring great benefits when they do get it up and running. Ms Tunney said that they are not suggesting an end to aviation or flying.
However, she suggested putting a demand management system in place.
“We need to do a proper economic evaluation of Dublin Airport, the aviation numbers and what it's doing,” she said. “If we do a whole examination, I’m not saying we leave Ireland abandoned and isolated. I’m saying we need to look at how many flights we need a year. And there are benefits to people not leaving the country,” she said.
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