I’m very honoured to be here at an event organised by Sustainable Energy Ireland, by the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland and the OPW. I am very honoured to see my brother John Ryan and Francesca my sister-in-law in the audience. I have a connection through John and his friends to the architectural world. Your words at the start reminded me of times I’ve had in the past, obtuse or otherwise discussing the ways of the world.
There is no doubt in my mind that what you have said is true. Trying to integrate architecture and buildings and every aspect of our lives into this climate and energy challenge we face, is central to what’s happening in the world at the present time.
I don’t think the public in Ireland is widely aware of the significance of events that are occurring at the moment in the European Union in terms of the development of climate change targets. I just want to briefly outline in a very broad sense, the consequences and the timelines that we’re engaged in.
People may be aware that in January 2007, the European Commission came out with its 202020 proposals. 20 % reduction in emissions from the European Union compared to 1990 levels by 2020. And that will increase to 30% reduction if we get wider international agreement to tackle climate change .20% of our energy supply in 2020 to come from renewable resources and a 20% increase in our efficient use of energy in that same timeframe. Some people were critical and saying that’s all a bit “twee”, too “round numbers”. But actually, as somebody involved in the negotiations in the Council of Ministers on each of those targets, it’s interesting to see that they were appropriate, suitably ambitious and based on absolute sound scientific foundation in the need for us to restrict any temperature increase below a 2 degree rise in global warming. The scientific formula from that in terms of what we have to reduce our emissions, was set out in that 20% emissions reduction.
That 2020 target was proposed initially in January 2007. It was agreed by the heads of Government and the European Council in March 2007 and in January this year the Commission came out with much more detailed proposals as to how we would actually achieve it. And we have to and I believe we will agree in the European Union by the end of this year, the broad outline of that approach. And the reason we have the timeline is because it also needs to be agreed by the European Parliament before it dissolves in advance of next June’s European elections, but also more crucially, we have to have agreement in Europe on what we are doing so that we can go to Copenhagen in the Autumn of 2009 and take part in those international climate change negotiations in a way where we can show that we are real about making the reductions that we have been talking about for many years.
My assessment is that politically, we will get agreement in Europe and from what I hear from other international sources, is that we will get agreement in Copenhagen which will lead us into a different energy world. The targets are challenging particularly for Ireland.
There are two main sectors. I’m sorry to be getting into the detail but I think it’s important that we have a collective understanding of the significance and the scale of what is being proposed and what will be required.
One sector in industry and power generation, in cement making and so on, is the emissions trading sector. And that to a certain extent will be looked after by a system which is managed down from the European centre. On the other side, we have the non-traded sector which is primarily in relation to agriculture, in relation to transport and also the built environment, and our use of energy in our homes, in our offices outside that large industrial sector.
And I have to say that that’s going to present a challenge and that the built environment is the one that I think provides us with the greatest most immediate opportunity to make reductions. In our energy efficiency target, which is separate to the emissions reduction, we estimate that if we achieve that 20 pc reduction, we can get a reduction of some 32 GW per hour each year in the energy we use and two thirds of that energy reduction can come from the built environment.
So that is the challenge. The built environment is central for us as a country to meet those overall targets, for us to actually be part of a European Union and a global response so that we halt the worst effects of climate change.
In terms of what we’re doing then; today’s conference is very important – we’re going beyond talking, beyond philosophising. We need to start looking at real and practical measures so that we can start meeting and achieving some of those targets.
I’m very glad to see David O’Connor from Fingal here. One of the progressive steps that we’ve taken in recent years, instigated I have to say by Green Party Councillors in Fingal, but supported by management there – was a change in the building regulations some two years ago. A ramping up of around 40pc improvement in terms of the energy efficiency, in terms of the emissions from the building, the heatload and that we use a renewable heat component in the building as well.
I think that change in building regulations in Fingal was a crucial first step, followed by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Council in their development plan, and now followed by my minister colleague John Gormley in government, applying those new standards from July this year to all new buildings.
That was a crucial first step and one that set us on the right course. A course that we are clearly saying in Government, leads to a further ramping up in 2010, to something like a 60 pc reduction in energy use and in emissions and an increase in the renewable component, and a further scaling up in the next decade towards a passive housing, passive building construction culture. That will be demanding on the architecture, developer and building profession but it is the right scale of ambition. We are lucky in the sense that the British government is following and indeed setting a similar course. So we are not going to be doing this alone, it’s not going to be without experience and infrastructure that can help us deliver it. But that is the scale of change that we’re talking about in the next ten years, a relatively short period of time when you look at the history, the ability of us to change building technologies, the need for us to improve our educational and training systems to meet such a change. It is a first and crucial way I believe of effecting the change; to set regulations and then leave it to the industry, to you with your creative ability to decide and show how it can be achieved.
A crucial element in that to help us is the building energy rating scheme. I know we’re tight in terms of timelines, and that there’s a real pressure to get the relevant software and certification in place. I’d have to say that while it’s tight here, we are significantly ahead the vast majority of European countries in terms of implementation of the directives which support such a building energy rating scheme. I want to commend Kevin O’Rourke of Sustainable Energy Ireland and his staff for the work that they’ve been doing to try and set this up so that we are ready early next year for ratings on existing buildings as well as new buildings which were introduced already.
That’s a second key component I believe in the historic shift and change we need to make. There is a number of other programmes which we have in place, particularly in Sustainable Energy Ireland which I think provide a very useful role to help us make the change.
The Greener Homes Scheme is probably the highest profile, and most successful scheme. There was huge public demand for retrofitting renewable heating systems into existing homes. We have continued to adapt and change that as technologies become mainstream, as the economics make sense, particularly now in terms of new buildings, regardless of the need for a grant system. So that Greener Homes Scheme was a crucial public scheme to try and help us effect change.
I see a new scheme, which we have launched this year as a pilot scheme having a similar if not more significant role. The Home Energy Saving Scheme we have launched on a pilot basis in Limerick, Clare, Tipperary Louth and now in a number of other locations around the country. What we are looking to do is to make it easier for the householder to retrofit existing buildings with the sort of energy insulation and other technology that will bring them up in their energy rating. We have designed a scheme where we want to send an energy rating assessor in to measure the performance of the building, to give a series of recommendations as to how you can improve it, to organise a building contractor to come in and take on the work and then to measure afterwards the effect on the building energy rating. So you have a before and after test. You have a clear sense of what the financial return will be in terms of lower fuel bills that will help to pay any loan that might have been taken for construction work.
We want to make it as easy for someone to take on that often complex task as it is to go into a fitted kitchen showroom, where they open up a brochure and say, “I’ll take option B”, and €20,000 is spent in two minutes because it’s packaged and organised as one single project. I think architects are perfectly placed to provide that role in terms of going in to houses, to looking at them top to bottom and coming up with a suite of responses that we can put in to existing buildings, which we in the State will support through this Home Energy Saving Scheme.
There are a number of other different schemes we have in place. The Capital Allowances Scheme that we introduced last year, which in the Finance bill provided for a tax break for businesses investing in energy efficient equipment, is something we’re looking to continue this year, to widen and broaden the spectrum of products that are carried.
I am very pleased to announce that today SEI are launching a new scheme, a Low Carbon Homes Scheme which is a continuation from the real beneficial work that was done through the House of Tomorrow Scheme which in a sense provided support for the very building technologies that are now becoming mainstream in our new building regulations.
The Low Carbon Homes Programme, the details of which are carried on the SEI website, will do something similar. With grants of up to 40% of eligible expenditure, including issues like R&D, education and training, with the aim of bringing the emissions and energy use down by 70% on buildings, 70% lower than 2005 standard ratings. I think it’s actually a perfect example of the work that SEI is doing in terms of being ahead of the curve, assisting us with demonstration projects to introduce the technologies that then become mainstream. I look forward to that Scheme and its success in ramping us up as we move towards passive housing construction.
I want to finish if I can – your comments have inspired me. I grew up with an architect brother. I spent my time in the eighties in London with a whole group of architects. We were making our way in the world, but we also had a sense, a real wonder at the world. We were constantly talking about what was the way of the world, and how could we steer it; how could we fit in with it?
I am absolutely clear now that the way of the world in architecture in a built environment is fitting into this new energy future. It’s exactly as you say, to create a built environment that provides people with the light, warmth and services that they need but in a way that fits in with the natural systems that we are dependent on.
It’s not just because of the climate change imperative. It’s clear we’re at a time at the moment where the energy future of the world is also changing. With this historic change where we move from a world where oil production has been increasing for the last 100 years and has provided us with an energy which we will never see bettered. Three tablespoons of oil will give you the equivalent human energy of 8 man hours of work and in one barrel of oil you have five people working 12 hours a day, every day for five years. That’s the energy we have in that fuel source. It’s a fantastic, transportable, storable fuel source that we have built our society around.
We have to start building a different society because it will not be as easily available as we approach peak, and then go into a world of contracting supplies. There is an economic as well as a moral imperative for us to change and we as a country are particularly exposed. Every one of us, every day uses ten pints of oil a day. We don’t see it, because we don’t see it in car production, or transport that brings goods to our shops; or in the fertilisers and pesticides that allows the crop to grow that made those food products. But that’s what we’re using and we have to shift away from it.
The easiest, and most clever way, is to start designing our buildings in a way that reduces by natural means our requirement to do that.
There is a very interesting book by Chris Lowney about the success of the Jesuits called “Heroic Leadership”. It’s a fascinating book and he breaks down to four simple messages. One is self-awareness; being aware of what is going on with yourself and the wider world. Be indifferent to the outcome of your actions, in other words being completely flexible – walking with one foot in the air all the time so that you can turn in any direction regardless of the consequences. It’s based on a love of fellow man.
Lastly and this is the one I want to concentrate on, it’s based on heroic ambition, willing to be quite heroic in your thinking, in what you want to do.
I think with the scale of the energy challenge we have ahead of us, we need to be heroic. We need to say, “Yes in ten years’ time, as Al Gore did last week, we are going to rid ourselves of fossil fuel in energy production. Yes, in ten years’ time when we build, they will be passive buildings. Yes in ten years’ time, we will meet some of the European Union targets that will completely change our transport system and our agricultural system”.
[I think for the better].
I think this strange time we’re in, when a variety of economic forces – the credit crunch which must be crippling the developers which you rely on, the energy crisis which is a fundamental reason behind that credit crunch I believe – it provides us with an opportunity for change. It provides us an economic reason for doing things differently. I think the events here today are one practical step in that direction and I wish you the best of luck.
Thank you.