INPACT: Investigating National Policy Impacts on Atmospheric Climate Targets Back to Main dashboard

Ireland Greenhouse Gas Policy Impact Explorer

Explore greenhouse gas emissions, atmospheric pollutants, climate policies and policy effectiveness across Ireland.

Funded by Funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Ireland Climate Policy Timeline Greenhouse-gas mitigation policies in force 2000–2023

All policies / Cross-sectoral / CAPMF_CARBON_BUDGETS

Statutory carbon-budget programme

Framework applying across all sectors, using a framework mechanism; in force since 2022.

Cross-sectoral Framework Framework Source: OECD only OECD match: Partial Selected as: OECD anchor
2022–start year; still open
0.88policy intensity in 2023
0.88peak intensity, 2000–2023
–no reported saving for this row

About this policy

Five-year national limits on total greenhouse-gas emissions. The first carbon-budget programme, comprising budgets for 2021–25 and 2026–30 and a provisional budget for 2031–35, was approved in 2022; the dataset starts it in 2022, when the programme took effect on 6 April.

Key milestones

  1. 2022The first carbon-budget programme, comprising budgets for 2021–2025 and 2026–2030 and a provisional budget for 2031–2035, came into effect on 6 April.

Contextual milestones compiled from official sources. They are not used in the index.

About this type of instrument: framework legislation and climate governance

Climate policy requires commitments that outlast electoral cycles. Framework laws address this time-inconsistency problem by making targets statutory, creating recurring planning obligations and assigning accountability. Independent advisory bodies reduce information asymmetries between government and parliament.

Strengths
  • Raises the credibility and predictability of long-term policy
  • Coordinates action across sectors and departments
  • Creates regular accountability through reporting and review
Limitations
  • Acts indirectly, through the instruments it mandates
  • Effects are difficult to attribute separately from those instruments
  • Targets can be missed without automatic corrective measures

Measurement in this dataset. Framework rows form layer L1 and are assigned to the cross-sectoral category. Implementation is proxied by OECD governance indicators (climate advisory body, net-zero target status). Several frameworks share the same indicator, so they are contextual and must never be added to instrument rows.

Read the full guide to framework instruments

Year by year

Filled markers use a matched OECD score; hollow markers use assumed timing. Shaded bands show the policy's status. Select a year on the chart or the slider to see how its intensity is built up.

Data-quality notes

Methodological notes recorded for this series, grouped by theme.

Aggregation warnings

  • Framework row: contextual, and never added to instrument rows.
  • Should not be interpreted as a separate causal effect.

Scoring conventions

  • The unweighted equal-weight index remains positive before the policy starts; use the gated version for timing analysis.
  • Bindingness is a normative score from the study rubric, not a measure of observed compliance.
  • Coverage is an ordinal scope score, not a measured share of activity or emissions.

Timing assumptions

  • The policy has no reported end date; its status after the reporting date is reconstructed as continuing.

Selection context

  • Policies were selected using recent (2024–2030) assessments, which can introduce retrospective selection bias.

OECD match quality

  • Shares an OECD governance indicator with other framework rows.

Sources

  1. OECD. Climate Actions and Policies Measurement Framework (CAPMF) database, Ireland, 1990–2023. https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?df[ag]=OECD.ENV.EPI&df[id]=DSD_CAPMF@DF_CAPMF (accessed 25 September 2026)
  2. Government of Ireland. Carbon Budgets. https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-climate-energy-and-the-environment/publications/carbon-budgets/ (accessed 25 September 2026)