Ireland to voluntarily report impact of wetlands on greenhouse gas emissions
Ireland has opted to voluntarily report on the impact of managed wetland and bogs on greenhouse gas emissions and removals beginning this year, as part of “progress towards EU targets”.
Under EU regulations, managed wetland includes wetland which remains as wetland, settlement or other land, converted to wetland; or wetland converted to settlement or other land.
In Ireland, the majority of managed wetland falls under peatland from which peat for energy and horticultural purposes has been extracted.
While EU member states currently report emissions and removals from the land use sector, these do not go towards greenhouse gas emissions targets.
Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan has been urged to “guarantee the long-term survival” of post offices, particularly in rural areas.
Sinn Féin spokesperson on climate action, communications and transport Darren O’Rourke has thanked all the staff at An Post for their work over the Christmas period and throughout 2020 as a whole, as people heavily relied on postal services.
Moving into the Christmas period, the post office network is vital in ensuring children’s letters to Santa Claus get to the North Pole on time and the “maintenance of a publicly-owned postal network is crucial”.
Deputy O’Rourke said: “The Christmas period is a very important time for all children across the island and it is a very busy time for post offices throughout the country.
Greencoat Renewables to buy Cavan and Offaly wind farms for €123 million
It has been announced this week that Greencoat Renewables is set to buy two wind farms in counties Cavan and Offaly for €123 million.
Greencoat Renewables, the renewable infrastructure company invested in euro-denominated assets, will acquire Taghart wind farm in Co. Cavan and Cloghan wind farm in Co. Offaly, from Statkraft, Europe’s largest generator of renewable energy.
Construction of the wind farms is scheduled to begin soon, with the acquisition due for completion once each wind farm is fully operational, expected in late 2022.
Statkraft will manage the construction of each wind farm and will continue to provide trading and operational management services for the wind farms once operational.
Ryan also said that while there s no evidence that the new strain of Covid-19 is present in Ireland at this moment, he confirmed that Irish labs are checking every positive case in order to find it and track it if there is .
The Government imposed a 48-hour ban on flights from Britain on Sunday night following fears over the spread of a new strain of Covid-19, while ferries to Ireland will be limited to freight travel.
Ryan said the aim of the initial suspension of travel was to assess the situation and decide with the EU and the UK government what comes next.