Sir, – Brendan Murphy (Letters, January 8th) questions the cost of home energy upgrades to achieve carbon reductions, suggesting instead that it would be cheaper, easier, and more effective to pursue large industrial concerns and convert them to renewable energy.
This misses the point that, if we are to achieve our ambitious climate action targets, it is not a case of either/or. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland’s National Energy Projections report, published in 2023, clearly shows that we need all actions, in all sectors and we need them sooner rather than later.
We need homes, communities, public buildings, businesses large and small, and transport to be more energy efficient and to maximise renewable energy use.
Home heating actually accounts for almost one fifth of total national energy-related emissions, with the majority of homes heated using gas and oil-fired boilers. We need large swathes of our housing stock to be better insulated to retain heat and to convert to heat pumps to move them off fossil fuels and onto increasingly renewable-based electricity.
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The benefits of collective climate action are too big to pass up – warmer and more comfortable homes and buildings, better environment, better health, improved quality of life, and thriving economic opportunities. – Yours, etc,
TOM HALPIN,
Head of Communications,
Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland,
Dundalk,
Co Louth.
