OPINION – Scotland is Making Renewable Energy Progress. Why isn’t Ireland?

Eoin McCaul

In 2020, Scotland managed to meet its energy demand with 97.4 per cent of its energy sources being renewable, narrowly missing its target of 100 per cent that was set back in 2011.

For students and young people, this is a positive development which proves that switching to renewable energy is not some far-off fantasy. The climate crisis stands as the most pressing issue of our times, and how it is addressed today will define the state of the world in which we build our futures.

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The school strike for climate protests that attracted massive amounts of students to its cause back in 2019 has shown a fierce mood among young people, who are angry at how little has been done. Politicians have spent the last twenty years doing little more than posturing over the issue or - even worse - flat out denying that it is a problem.

While the pandemic managed to vastly decrease emissions outputted in the first half of 2020 as a result of the lockdown measures implemented throughout the world, there was still a rise in the second half as a result of the easing of these measures.

As we move closer towards a return to normalcy with vaccination programs well underway, it’s important that our economic recovery gives priority to green sources of energy or else we will plunge straight into another crisis.

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The goals set by the Scottish government are some of the most ambitious in the world, aiming to achieve net-zero emissions by 2045. While we certainly should aim even higher than these goals if we want the best chances of avoiding a catastrophe, the progress that Scotland has made so far shows that the problem is far from unsolvable.

Most of this progress has been driven by on-shore wind farms which have been able to harness the strong winds which Scotland has a plentiful supply of. The progress made in the development of renewable technologies in recent years has made it so that it no longer makes sense to use fossil fuels even in a purely economic sense.

In Ireland we are still woefully behind where we need to be with it looking unlikely that we will even meet a 70 per cent share of renewable power generation by 2030. This is despite the fact that we also benefit from strong Atlantic winds which offer huge amounts of potential energy generation that we could be taking advantage of.

There is still a long way to go towards reaching a sustainable level of emissions, especially when it comes to heating and travel. But these goals are achievable if only the investment that is so vitally required was set aside for them.

The groundbreaking speed with which the multiple vaccines currently in use against Covid-19 is an example of what we can accomplish when research is directed to solving problems rather than what is profitable.

While the slow burn of climate change may make it seem like a less pressing issue than a global pandemic, it deserves no less attention in dealing with it.

It is only through cooperation rather than competition that we can make progress in solving this crisis as we all need the planet to survive, from Beijing to Washington.

With the upcoming COP26 taking place in Glasgow later this year, which the government claims it has no plans to postpone, we are approaching what has the potential to be a turning point in this crisis. But this is no time to become complacent. It is our future that is being debated at this conference and now is the most vital time to let our voices be heard.


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Eoin McCaul is a first year PPE student at Queen’s University Belfast

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