Research Area: Environment, Climate & Sustainability

  • NESC at the ‘Finding Common Ground’ Festival on 9/4/25

    NESC at the ‘Finding Common Ground’ Festival on 9/4/25

     

    On Wednesday, 9th April 2025, NESC Senior Policy Analyst Niamh Garvey participated in a panel discussion on opportunities for land use change. The input drew on NESC’s Report No.162, Just Transition in Agriculture and Land Use, in addition to its participation in Phase 2 of the Land Use Review.

    The event was part of the RDS Finding Common Ground Festival – like its name implies, the aim of the festival is to find the common ground that allows us to harness the benefits of Irish natural resources and circular bio-economy (including agriculture and forestry), while also leaving the world in a better state than we found it. Other speakers and panellists included Prof. Mark Scott, Dr. David Styles, Dr. James Moran, Prof. Yvonne Buckley, Dr. Andrew Kelly, Paul O’Brien and Matt Smith.

  • NESC Speaks at IBSPN Seminar on 6/3/25

    NESC Speaks at IBSPN Seminar on 6/3/25

    On Thursday, 6th March 2025, NESC policy analyst Gemma O’Reilly presented to the Irish Behavioural Science and Policy Network on applying systems analysis to the Irish transport and energy sectors. The presentation drew on a study carried out by the OECD and funded by CCAC on Ireland’s transport habits, and also included stakeholder feedback from our systems workshop held last November.

    This seminar, dubbed ‘Applications of Systemic Thinking to Behaviour Change’, took place in the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery & Reform. It explored how using a systems lens to explore behavioural challenges in policy development can lead to impactful and holistic policy solutions, with a particular focus on climate and sustainability issues. It also offered an opportunity to network.

    Other speakers included Joseph Merz of the Merz Institute, who presented on the factors that drive human behavioural patterns that contribute to ecological overshoot, and potential solutions.

     

    To view the full PowerPoint presentation delivered by Gemma, please click here.

     

     

     

  • NESC Chairs Expert Discussion on Emerging Issues for Ireland’s Energy Security

    NESC Chairs Expert Discussion on Emerging Issues for Ireland’s Energy Security

    On 25th February 2025, the Department of Environment, Climate, and Communications (DECC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) brought together experts from across government, industry, academia, and regulators to identify the key security challenges, trends, and solutions under Ireland’s energy transition out to 2035. The full-day workshop involved four sessions, all with a focus on the power sector.

    Dr Cathal FitzGerald, Senior Analyst at NESC, moderated the second session, on ‘Emerging Challenges in Ireland’s Power System Transformation’.

    “NESC has made Ireland’s energy transition a key focus of its research over the last twelve months, and understanding the security of supply aspects, alongside sustainability, affordability, and economic resilience, has been central,” Dr FitzGerald said. The second session covered case studies, emerging network challenges, issues related to ancillary services and system security, and climate impacts and resilience of the power system. NESC then moderated an expert roundtable discussion.

    Across the day, participants also considered Ireland’s broad energy and security challenges to 2035, a deep-dive on the demand-side outlook for Ireland, and key solutions to ensure energy security including policy, planning, regulation, technology, and market design.

    “The Council’s role is to provide research, dialogue, and advice on strategic issues for Ireland, and the DECC/IEA gathering is the latest example of NESC engagement in dialogue with key actors in energy policy,” Dr FitzGerald said. “Ireland’s energy transition must be supported with ever-more sophisticated research and evidence, and a shared understanding of what transformation entails,” he added. “NESC is contributing to that evidence base as well as helping to build a shared view of what is needed to make the energy transition successful.”

    Participants provided insights on and discussed the key priorities to ensure energy security. Findings from the workshop will serve as an essential input to an IEA publication focused on Ireland’s energy security, to be published later this year.

     

    For more on NESC’s ongoing work in the area of energy transition, please click here.

  • NESC Chairs Session at UCC’s EPMG Research Showcase Event

    NESC Chairs Session at UCC’s EPMG Research Showcase Event

    On Tuesday, 17th December NESC Policy Analyst Dr. Jeanne Moore attended an energy research showcase organised by UCC’s Environmental Research Institute and MaREI. The showcase was held at Engineers Ireland in Dublin, and saw nearly 100 stakeholders and guests from the policy, industry, and NGO communities in attendance. The purpose of the day was to highlight some of the Energy Policy and Modelling Group’s research and insights.

    NESC was invited to take part in this event by its co-organiser Prof. Brian Ó Gallachóir, Director of MaREI and Associate Vice President of Sustainability at UCC. Jeanne chaired the second session and its subsequent panel discussion, which focused on energy security and infrastructure. Other topics touched on were the possibility of emissions from aviation being a blind spot in Ireland’s climate goals, and district heating’s interaction with other decarbonisation measures in the residential sector. The panel discussion featured inputs from Dr. Vahid Aryanpur, Dr. Paul Deane, Dr. Tomás Mac Uidhir, and Dr. Alexandra Revez, all of UCC.

    For more on NESC’s own energy related research and events, please visit our dedicated energy work programme page here.

     

  • NESC Energy Work Programme: Systems Workshop on 19/11/24

    NESC Energy Work Programme: Systems Workshop on 19/11/24

    On Tuesday, 19th November 2024, as part of its research programme on energy, the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) gathered members of the heat and electricity sectors to collect perspectives, insights and ideas on the goal to transition towards zero carbon by 2050. The outcomes of the workshop will inform NESC’s systems analysis of the transition. The event brought together stakeholders and experts including youth delegates, utilities, the renewable energy sector, government departments and agencies, academics, Northern Ireland stakeholders, and representative organisations.

    Opening the event, NESC Director Dr Larry O’Connell said “dialogue is a fundamental part of NESC’s approach. This workshop is an opportunity for NESC to support a dialogue between stakeholders and experts on a vision for Ireland’s energy transition”.

    Gemma O’Reilly (NESC Policy Analyst) outlined the approach: “The energy sector has to satisfy diverse objectives including decarbonisation, affordability, eliminating energy deprivation, energy security, and competitiveness while respecting a range of environmental constraints in a context of changing technologies. Systems dynamics techniques can help us to navigate this complexity. We have been fortunate to secure the assistance of Birgit Kopainsky, Professor of Systems Dynamics at the University of Bergen, to facilitate our workshop and guide us through the techniques.”

    Following the OECD’s systems methodology for ‘Transformational Change for Net Zero‘, workshop participants were guided through an exercise of envisioning a ‘post-climate change crisis’ energy system from the perspective of households, rural areas, urban areas, business parks, and the energy industry. This was followed by an exercise exploring the drivers and constraints on the transition.

    Prof. Kopainsky – with support from Aidan Sliwkowski, also of the University of Bergen – helped participants identify dynamic processes facilitating or constraining the transition. Prof. Kopainsky explained that “systems dynamics approaches help reduce the ambiguities and miscommunications that occur when we tackle complex issues. This workshop will help us build an accessible coherent narrative on the energy transition, providing a solid basis for identifying concrete actions to lead us towards a desirable future”. The full presentation she delivered on the day can be viewed here.

    Outcomes of the workshop will inform the next steps in NESC’s research, which will examine the existing and available solutions to accelerate the net zero transition while achieving energy’s social, economic and environmental objectives.

     

    Please see below a selection of photos taken on the day:

    Previous Image
    Next Image

    info heading

    info content

  • NESC at the Inaugural Decarbonising Dublin Summit

    NESC at the Inaugural Decarbonising Dublin Summit

     

    On 14th November 2024, Dr Jeanne Moore participated in Codema’s Decarbonising Dublin Summit. Codema is Dublin’s Energy Agency, and this event focused on the challenges and opportunities facing the capital in meeting its climate and energy targets towards 2030 and 2050. Jeanne moderated the morning session, ‘A Strategic Vision for Dublin’, with panellists sharing an image to represent their strategic future vision for the city.

     

    Taking part in the panel discussion were: Dr Lorraine D’Arcy, TU Dublin; Jim Scheer, SEAI; Liam Ryan, Eirgrid; Marion Jammet, IGBC; Helen Shaw, Athena Media; and Katlyne Armstrong, Bohemian FC. Each brought a different perspective and vision for Dublin’s people and places. In her reflections, Jeanne noted that:

    “These strategic visions complement and align to show us the potential for a decarbonised city that enables people and places to live healthily and well in inclusive ways that seem to nurture communities and nature. In different ways they touch on significant changes in our systems (how we get around, how we use heat and power in the city as well as nationally) and on governance – a focus on just and inclusive processes (such as more co-creation and enabled community action and shared spaces) but also made possible by the technical and digital shifts already underway”.

     

    To close the session,  Jeanne led the delegates through Codema’s visioning exercise to picture themselves in a decarbonised Dublin in 2050.

  • Experts Gather to Discuss NESC Research on Ireland’s Future Energy System

    Experts Gather to Discuss NESC Research on Ireland’s Future Energy System

    Last Wednesday, 23rd October 2024, The National Economic and Social Council (NESC) gathered national stakeholders to consider the preliminary findings of its research into the future of Ireland’s energy system. That research, part of NESC’s wider energy research programme, examines how the transition to a decarbonised electricity system will impact Ireland’s economic resilience.

    The event brought together experts from the power sector including industry, Government Departments and Agencies, academics, State bodies, and representative organisations.

    Opening the event, NESC Director Dr Larry O’Connell said, “the NESC Council have a vision for a sustainable, thriving net zero Ireland. To get there, we need to understand the enterprise opportunities and the economic resilience impacts associated with transition in the power sector. This will improve policy and inform a supportive narrative”. He added, “our research is not about whether to transition to net zero or whether to decarbonise our energy system, it is about how to do so”.

    Dr Cathal FitzGerald (NESC Senior Analyst), who undertook the research, outlined the early findings and draft recommendations. “Our research has found a complex landscape of quantitative assessments, and an absence of clarity around certain aspects of future energy-system reliability, cost, and the potential to export” he said. “Overall, the economic opportunities and resilience impacts for Ireland could be outlined to a far greater extent”.

    “On the plus side, there are lessons from other countries on how to address this, and – if acted upon here – would improve policy development, inform the narrative around decarbonisation, and ultimately support the transition to cleaner power”, Dr FitzGerald added. “NESC’s research findings point to the value of having a clear, evidence-based national strategy for transition in the power sector”, he concluded.

    The assembled experts from across the power sector and the policy system discussed the research and provided insights, which will now inform its finalisation.

    The research will be concluded over the coming weeks and will be discussed at an upcoming meeting of the NESC Council. Once agreed and completed, it will be submitted to the Taoiseach and Government for consideration.

     

  • International Case Studies of Ecosystem Accounting

    International Case Studies of Ecosystem Accounting

    The world is increasingly recognising the global crisis in biodiversity and building a response. Biodiversity in Ireland is no less in crisis: The National Biodiversity Action Plan 2023-2030 set out the problem as: ‘Despite ongoing conservation and restoration efforts, Ireland’s biodiversity is in a state of crisis, and urgent, impactful action is imperative to prevent the continued erosion of our natural heritage’ (DHLGH, 2022: 6). As part of building a response to this crisis, a number of countries have developed and built a statistical system to recognise the contributions of nature to the economy and society, natural capital accounting.

    This paper will provide an overview of international experience in natural capital and, in particular, ecosystem accounting and present the policy and legal context for these tools in the UN and the EU. This paper will then focus on examining implementation in the UK, Netherlands, and Mexico in some detail and a brief introduction to relevant developments in Australia, Canada and the U.S.A.

  • Natural Capital Accounting: A Guide for Action

    Natural Capital Accounting: A Guide for Action

    How can Ireland better account for nature? On request from Government and drawing on in-depth engagement with key stakeholders, this Council report provides advice on natural capital accounting and presents a guide for action. The report highlights the potential of natural capital accounting as a key part of what is required in order to value, recognise and bring considerations of nature more effectively into policy decision-making in Ireland.

    Natural capital accounting is an information framework and an approach to integrating environmental data into the system of national accounts for economic activity. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) and Eurostat are already using the United Nations (UN) standardised approach to natural capital accounting.

    The report outlines the centrality of natural capital accounting to protecting Ireland’s natural capital and biodiversity. It describes how this accounting framework can systematically bring nature’s hidden risk and value into view. It provides examples of how nature is valued and accounted for in other countries, including Australia, Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom (UK).

    The Council recommends three areas of action that will help develop natural capital accounting and embed it into the wider policy-making system, supporting the increased policy momentum on nature. The Council considers that natural capital accounting is an important part of the solution to working more closely with nature.

     

    The three areas of action are:

    Capacity-Building: Identification of actions to enhance Ireland’s work on developing natural capital accounting, building capacity in areas including skills around ecosystem services and spatial mapping, and in using the accounts in national departments, agencies and  local authorities.

    Spotlight on Payment for Ecosystems Services Schemes: Examination of the development of PES schemes aimed at supporting the transition in agriculture and land use and supporting farmers in caring for nature, water, forestry, carbon sequestration and a range of other ecosystem services.

    Support for Integration: Advice on how to integrate natural capital accounting into the wider policy system.

  • Rapporteur Report on NESC Roundtables – Accounting for Nature in Ireland

    Rapporteur Report on NESC Roundtables – Accounting for Nature in Ireland

    A series of three roundtables designed by the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) and supported by Natural Capital Ireland (NCI) enabled high-level policy dialogue on valuing nature in Ireland, including the potential of the natural capital approach and natural capital accounting in policy.

    The roundtables were organised by the NESC as part of the project Accounting for Nature in Ireland. Natural Capital Ireland (NCI) were commissioned by NESC to provide a briefing paper in advance of the roundtables on valuing nature in Ireland; to attend each roundtable as independent rapporteurs to support the NESC Secretariat; and to provide a Rapporteurs’ Report after completion of the roundtables.

    These high-level policy dialogues brought a wide range of policy makers, together with some experts and stakeholders, to discuss the potential and challenges of using the natural capital approach and natural capital accounting within the policy system in Ireland. NCI acted as independent rapporteurs for each roundtable to complement the NESC Secretariat.