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NEA NI Response to the DAERA’s Draft Northern Ireland Climate Action Plan 2023-2027

NEA NI Response to the DAERA’s Draft Northern Ireland Climate Action Plan 2023-2027

We welcome the opportunity to respond to this draft Climate Action Plan (CAP) 2023-2027. We strongly support its important ambition to reduce carbon emissions and meet the first carbon budget. However, our overarching caution to policymakers is that decarbonisation must be delivered in a way that safeguards affordable warmth and does not deepen fuel poverty.

Northern Ireland faces both a climate emergency and a fuel poverty crisis, with 40% of households estimated to be living in fuel poverty (LucidTalk and NEA NI, 2024). These are not competing challenges. They are interconnected and must be tackled together. If action to decarbonise our energy system and residential sector increases costs for low-income households, it will fail to be just and fair. Conversely, effective measures to reduce fuel poverty – particularly investment in domestic energy efficiency – can directly reduce emissions.

The CAP is therefore a critical opportunity to address both crises simultaneously. To succeed, it must place affordable warmth and the principles of a Just Transition at its core.

Our response focuses on the Energy and Residential Buildings sections of the draft CAP, drawing on our extensive experience supporting fuel poor households and vulnerable energy consumers.

You can download the full response from the link under ‘Resources’.

Resources

NEA NI Response to the Draft Northern Ireland Climate Action Plan
Download the report

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