Upcoming Events

National | Environment

no events match your query!

Blog Feeds

Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

Public Inquiry >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link The UK?s Crisis Point is Fast Approaching Thu Jul 03, 2025 19:30 | Dr David McGrogan
Starmer's failure to achieve even the tiniest gesture towards welfare reform in the fiscally incontinent UK is a symptom of a much deeper political malaise, says Dr David McGrogan. The crisis point is fast approaching.
The post The UK’s Crisis Point is Fast Approaching appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Britain is Running Out of Space for Offshore Wind, Warns GB Energy Boss Thu Jul 03, 2025 17:54 | Will Jones
Britain is running out of space for?offshore wind farms, the boss of GB Energy has warned, jeopardising Ed Miliband's Net Zero renewables drive, with floating turbines cost four times as much.
The post Britain is Running Out of Space for Offshore Wind, Warns GB Energy Boss appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Does Mass Immigration Cause Homelessness? Thu Jul 03, 2025 15:30 | Noah Carl
Since 2022, the number of homeless people in the US has spiked by almost 200,000. A new paper finds that the influx of asylum seekers under Biden accounts for about 60% of this increase.
The post Does Mass Immigration Cause Homelessness? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Engineer Given Half Lucy Connolly?s Sentence for Near-Identical Tweet Thu Jul 03, 2025 13:51 | Will Jones
A two-tier justice row has erupted after an engineer was jailed for half as long?as Lucy Connolly?over a near-identical tweet, while a Labour MP who punched a constituent to the ground was spared jail completely.
The post Engineer Given Half Lucy Connolly’s Sentence for Near-Identical Tweet appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Poland Stops 98% of Illegal Migrant Crossings with a 116-Mile, 16ft-High Border Wall ? and Now it?s ... Thu Jul 03, 2025 11:35 | Will Jones
Poland cut illegal immigration from Belarus by 98% after building a 116-mile border wall ? and now Donald Tusk's Government is adding a minefield. Turns out robust clampdown on illegal entry is okay if it's from Russia.
The post Poland Stops 98% of Illegal Migrant Crossings with a 116-Mile, 16ft-High Border Wall ? and Now it’s Adding a Minefield appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Minister for Climate Action Richard Bruton asked to ensure that Ireland does not purchase credits from Estonia

category national | environment | press release author Friday July 05, 2019 17:41author by foie - Friends of the Irish Environment Report this post to the editors

Press Release - Friends of the Irish Environment 5th July 2019

Concerns that Ireland could meet its renewable energy targets by propping up Estonia’s oil shale industry with biomass co-firing

Friends of the Irish Environment have urged Minister for Climate Action Richard Bruton to ensure that Ireland does not purchase credits from Estonian co-firing of wood in oil shale power stations in order to meet our renewable energy target. [1]

Environmental campaigners in Estonia are deeply concerned that Irish government could end up purchasing Renewable Energy Credits from future co-firing of wood in the country’s three oil-shale fired power stations, which are responsible for 90% of Estonia’s CO2 emissions and make it the EU’s top greenhouse gas emitter per capita after Luxembourg.

Doing so would throw a lifeline to the polluting oil shale industry which is struggling to survive in the face of rising CO2 prices. It would prevent Estonia from having to transition to a cleaner, low-carbon energy system.[2] It would also speed up the destruction of Estonia’s forests which are being logged much muster than they can regrow. [3]

According to an Open Letter signed by Estonian Fund for Nature and Forest Aid Estonia:
“If other EU member states were to purchase renewable energy credits from cofired biomass from Estonian oil shale plants, they would evade investing in truly renewable, low-carbon energy and instead help subsidise both forest destruction and one of the most polluting fossil fuel industries in Europe.” [4]

Tony Lowes of Friends of the Irish Environment states: “For Ireland to meets its renewable energy targets in a way that props up one of the dirtiest fossil fuel industries in the world and accelerates the destruction of European forests should be unthinkable. The Government must take urgent steps to prevent such a scenario from happening.”

Friends of the Irish Environment points out that, even if Ireland did decide to purchase Renewable Energy Credits from Estonia, it could insist on an exclusion clause to prevent them from coming from co-firing of wood with oil shale, something agreed between Luxembourg and Estonia.
ENDS

Contacts:
COMMENT
Friends of the Irish Environment: Tony Lowes 353 (0)27 74771 / 353 (0)87 2176316
Daithí Ó hÉalaithe (Irish language) +353 (0)87 6178852

Letter to Minister
https://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.org/images/Climate/Bruton_Estonia_statistical_transfers_407.pdf.

REFERENCES
[1] Ireland will be required to make up its shortfall in 2020 renewable energy targets through the purchase of Renewable Energy Credits, known as statistical transfer auctions. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland in November 2017 projected that we will achieve between 12.7% and 13.9% of our 16% renewable energy target by 2020. The shortfall will be purchased at statistical transfer auctions overseen by the European Commission.
[2] Estonia has exceeded its renewable energy target, largely through biomass burning for heat, despite the fact that more than 80% of its own electricity is generated from oil shale burning. The sale of Renewable Energy credits from co-firing with oil shale would reduce the amount of carbon tax paid or the oil shale plants as well as directly subsidising the state-owned energy company that operates those power stations.
[3] The Nature Conservation Commission of the Estonian Academy of Sciences has warned: “Today's forest management as a whole is unsustainable in its present trend, does not guarantee biodiversity conservation, takes little account of ecosystem services and therefore needs to change.” The Estonian Environmental Agency has estimated that the sustainable limit for logging would be 8.5 million m3 a year (https://www.envir.ee/sites/default/files/loppraport_2050.pdf) – a figure criticised as too high by independent experts. In 2018, the logging volume was a record 12.5 million m3 (https://www.err.ee/933157/mullu-raiuti-eestis-rekordiliselt-metsa).
[4] http://eestimetsaabiks.emaliikumine.ee/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Estonia-cofiring-Open-Letter.pdf

See also:
Union of Concerned Scientists: https://www.ucsusa.org/clean-vehicles/clean-fuels/what-is-oil-shale.
http://eestimetsaabiks.emaliikumine.ee/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Estonia-cofiring-Open-Letter.pdf
Oil shale mining in Estonia: https://earthjustice.org/cases/2016/oil-shale-plan-threatens-massive-climate-pollution.

This Press Release
https://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.org/press-releases/17670-concerns-that-ireland-could-meet-its-renewable-energy-targets-b...iring

Copyright © 2019 Friends of the Irish Environment, All rights reserved.
Press Release

Our mailing address is:
Friends of the Irish Environment
Kilcatherine
Eyeries, Cork P75 CX53
Ireland

Related Link: https://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.org/press-releases/17670-concerns-that-ireland-could-meet-its-renewable-energy-targets-by-propping-up-estonia-s-oil-shale-industry-with-bi...iring

 #   Title   Author   Date 
   What would it take to create a legal duty of care for the Earth?     Mary Kelly    Tue Jul 16, 2019 08:46 
   anthropogenic climate change is a cynical con job     sunburn    Fri Jul 19, 2019 16:42 


 
© 2001-2025 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy