Government unveils €300m aid for manufacturing decarbonisation

Up to €300 million in grants and supports will be given to manufacturing clients of Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland to help fund their efforts to decarbonise their activities, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Peter Burke has said.

The majority of industrial emissions are generated by companies primarily in the food and beverage, cement, pharmaceutical and chemicals sectors that are supported by Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, according to the statement, issued on Sunday.

The Government set a target in 2020 for on-site emissions across the manufacturing sector to fall by 35 per cent by 2030 as part of a path to reach net-zero emissions by the middle of the century.

Last month, for example, drinks giant Diageo announced it is to spend more than €100 million in decarbonising its historic St James’s Gate site in Dublin and to end the use of fossil fuels in its brewing process. The initiative is being supported by funds from Enterprise Ireland.

IDA Ireland chief executive Michael Lohan said that “almost all” of the agency’s top 100 clients have made net-zero carbon pledges “with many having net-zero decarbonisation targets by 2030″.

“Industrial emissions account for around 10 per cent of Ireland’s total emissions, so manufacturing businesses have an important leadership role to play in reducing Ireland’s overall carbon emissions,” said Mr Burke.

“I’m ring-fencing €300 million in funding to give these companies certainty that the Government will support them in making these significant investment decisions so that Ireland can achieve our 2030 abatement target.”

Irish households, businesses and the Government face spending a total of more than €150 billion by the end of the decade on efforts to meet interim climate-action targets, Davy said in a report published last year.

The firm estimates report that €129 billion will need to be invested in dedicated energy-transition measures by 2030, driven by the electrification of heating and transport and retrofitting of homes and businesses. Some 85 per cent of the expenditure is expected to come from the private sector.

The total equates to €18.5 billion a year, or 6 per cent of the current size of the domestic economy, measured by gross national income, over seven years.