In March 2021, the Irish government published a Climate Act committing Ireland to net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Net zero refers to the balance between the amount of greenhouse gas produced and the amount removed from the atmosphere. This was a landmark increase in ambition and aims to align Ireland’s future with the Paris Agreement to tackle climate change.

Wind Energy Ireland commissioned a study from UCC experts on “Our Climate Neutral Future” with the objective of creating a roadmap to a climate neutral future and explaining, for the first time, how Ireland can achieve this goal and what is involved.  Dr. Paul Deane from MaREI was the consultant on the study, which was supported by UCC Consulting.

Dr. Deane applied his expertise in clean energy futures to produce a report that will influence future governmental decisions on the use of energy technologies and environmental emissions to meet Ireland’s future energy needs. His report outlined that all the technologies, concepts and interventions required to reach a net zero economy are already in existence today in some form, however they must be radically scaled up across the economy for Ireland to reach net zero status.

Dr Deane also made recommendations to Wind Energy Ireland on investments required to achieve the government’s goals.

As a result of Dr. Deane’s work, “Our Climate Neutral Future” was published widely across print media and radio with UCC authors taking a central role in outreach. Climate Action Minister Eamon Ryan publicly uses and refers to MaREI’s Net Zero Report to explain Ireland’s vision of a Net Zero Economy.

The study has allowed both MaREI and Dr. Deane to build their profile and reputation as experts in clean energy and has helped build their relationship with Wind Energy Ireland.

The outputs from this study have been used to demonstrate and teach students about the use of research for public policy in UCC’s NE6011 Advanced Energy Systems Modelling course. The focus of the teaching is on how to communicate dense analytical information to an interested public audience. The project brief is presented to students, illustrating how analytical methods were used to address the questions of the client and how the information in the report was produced for the wider public with the use of simple terminology and rich visualisations.  

If you are interested in availing of UCC Consulting’s services, please contact Rachel O'Leary & Ruth Hargrove, UCC Consulting at consulting@ucc.ie