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Transportation Government

Ireland To Ban New Petrol, Diesel Vehicles By 2030 (bbc.com) 378

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: The Irish government plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030, as part of a major strategy to protect the environment. The aim is to ensure that all new cars and vans on Irish roads in 11 years' time are electric vehicles. The proposed legislation was among 180 measures in the government's Climate Action Plan, published on Monday. The document also includes a target to implement an EU-wide ban on non-recyclable plastic by 2030.

Unveiling the plan on Monday, the Environment Minister Richard Bruton said Ireland was "currently 85% dependent on fossil fuels." Mr Bruton said the plan was a roadmap to achieving existing 2030 emissions targets and would put Ireland "on a trajectory to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050." The hope is that by the time the petrol and diesel vehicle ban is introduced in 2030 there will be 950,000 electric vehicles on Irish roads. The government is set to invest in a "nationwide" charging network to power the new vehicles. By 2025, at least one recharging point will be required at new non-residential buildings with more than 10 parking spaces.
The government also said it would stop granting National Car Test (NCT) certificates to fossil fuel cars by 2045. "The compulsory inspection program is carried out every year on vehicles that are more than 10 years old," reports the BBC.
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Ireland To Ban New Petrol, Diesel Vehicles By 2030

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  • by bjdevil66 ( 583941 ) on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @10:53PM (#58785996)

    Good for them, but it's not exactly an earth shattering sacrifice. Since Ireland is 180 miles tall and about 300 miles wide and is about the size of the state of Indiana, a modern electric car can easily drive from the east Irish coast to the west (and possibly north to south if there's a straight enough highway) across the entire country without needing a recharge.

    That's a much easier sell than it is in bigger countries.

    (If the US government tried to do that today, they'd be drawn and quartered by an angry mob - of oil lobbyists. Then the citizens would get a hold of their remains and do unspeakable things to their entrails.

    • by Richard_at_work ( 517087 ) on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @11:31PM (#58786098)

      The bigger issue is still charging, especially in older European cities and towns - the vast majority of people in these places do not have off-street parking, nor do they have a guaranteed spot of on-street parking, so charging an EV vehicle overnight is going to be a nightmare - unless governments install on-street charging facilities, or in-road charging or something that does not bind the driver to hunting for a charging spot.

      Charging while at work etc is a nice-to-have, but it doesn't solve the issue for when you are not working - you have to start planning your day around visiting places which do have charging spots, and hoping they aren't taken.

      I also hope that the Irish government are going to do the right thing and give generous subsidies for vehicles they refuse NCT certificates for that would otherwise have passed - a 15 year old car these days is not particular old or past it, and suddenly taking them off the road for no other reason than "we want to" will leave a lot of lower income people in the lurch...

      • by religionofpeas ( 4511805 ) on Wednesday June 19, 2019 @12:51AM (#58786316)

        so charging an EV vehicle overnight is going to be a nightmare - unless governments install on-street charging facilities

        Driving chariots in the mud is going to be a nightmare, unless the Romans create some roads.

        • so charging an EV vehicle overnight is going to be a nightmare - unless governments install on-street charging facilities

          Driving chariots in the mud is going to be a nightmare, unless the Romans create some roads.

          You ever been to Ireland? The Romans never made it that far and you can tell by the roads. Or lack of proper ones anyway.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Ireland is lucky in that it has an unusually high proportion of dwellings with driveways and parking spaces where charging can be installed.

        In other European countries they are just getting on with installing those on-street chargers. Rows and rows of them down residential streets.

      • I wonder if it will actually come to the point where they will take the older cars off the road. Most other European government have announced no such plans, figuring that if they can actually meet the aggressive deadline of banning sales of new ICE cars, by the time 2045 rolls around there won't be enough ICE cars around to matter. By that time, forcing prized classics or economical clunkers off the road is just going to piss people off, and will not achieve any meaningful environmental benefit.

        Though
      • Stupid question. If there is no parking where do they keep their petrol powered Cars now?

        Because that is where electric cars will get parked too.

        • Stupid question. If there is no parking where do they keep their petrol powered Cars now?

          Because that is where electric cars will get parked too.

          And are they going to run charging strips along both sides of every road? Because that's where people park.

  • by blindseer ( 891256 ) <blindseer@noSPAm.earthlink.net> on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @11:37PM (#58786116)

    Any plant to get a nation off of coal and oil that does not mention nuclear power as part of the plan cannot be taken seriously. What they are saying is that global warming is a serious and existential threat that everything and anything must be done to avert this coming apocalypse... except nuclear power.

    If they fail to even mention nuclear power, as this document has done, then they are saying that nuclear power is in some way a greater threat to them than global warming. Any serious look at nuclear power will reveal that it is exceedingly safe, with CO2 output lower than any other energy source we know of, plentiful, reliable, and can be deployed most anywhere.

    They will do anything to save themselves from utter devastation, but they won't do THAT.

    I'll take this as a serious plan when they can at least describe why nuclear power was not part of the plan.

    • Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday June 19, 2019 @12:56AM (#58786334)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Wednesday June 19, 2019 @03:26AM (#58786718) Journal
        Brexit does not mean all power lines, comms lines, transport routes and trade deals are instantly cut off at the border. There will be some temporary issues with tariffs and standards, and moving physical goods will face additional logistics challenges, but other than that it is business as usual. Incidentally, that cable to France has bugger all to do with Brexit, the idea is to take advantage of cheap nuclear power in France while at the same time offering future opportunities to export surplus renewable energy to mainland Europe. The plans for that cable existed before Brexit.
      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Wednesday June 19, 2019 @06:41AM (#58787210) Homepage Journal

        Ireland has plenty of available wind power right off its shores. The cable to France will be pumping energy into mainland Europe.

        Ireland has realized that it has a massive resource just waiting to be exploited, the new oil if you will.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      The report doesn't mention nuclear because Ireland has never had any nuclear power, there is no appetite or demand for it, and everyone acknowledges that setting up the infrastructure to handle it would be cost prohibitive anyway.

      Think about it. To start from zero they would need to first develop the institutions, the regulator and the energy suppliers willing to operate such a plant. They would need to secure a supply of fuel, and a way to handle waste. "Worry about it later" isn't going to fly these days.

      • The report doesn't mention nuclear because Ireland has never had any nuclear power, there is no appetite or demand for it, and everyone acknowledges that setting up the infrastructure to handle it would be cost prohibitive anyway.

        Could not the same be said for electric cars? There's no infrastructure for them. They are very expensive. There's little or no real demand for them. Etc. They seem to think that they can find the money in spite of the expense, and that people will go along with this transition in spite of their opposition.

        Think about it. To start from zero they would need to first develop the institutions, the regulator and the energy suppliers willing to operate such a plant. They would need to secure a supply of fuel, and a way to handle waste. "Worry about it later" isn't going to fly these days. They would need to set up security apparatus to protect it all.

        It's just not a realistic proposition for Ireland.

        If that's the reasons why they aren't considering nuclear power then they should have put that in their policy document. How hard would that have been? If they can't be bothered to consider nuclear

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Could not the same be said for electric cars? There's no infrastructure for them. They are very expensive. There's little or no real demand for them.

          No, because there is infrastructure for them (everywhere has electricity and most dwellings in Ireland have driveways), the cost is rapidly approaching the point where it's cheaper over its lifetime than ICE, and there is currently a massive shortage of vehicles due to the high demand.

          If that's the reasons why they aren't considering nuclear power then they should have put that in their policy document.

          It was stated in the request to produce the report. No need to repeat it for the benefit for internet commentators who can't be bothered to do research.

  • By 2030 Farage will be running the UK, and he will switch everything to baby seal tallow. It cracks me up when politicians make these bold proclamations beyond their own time in office, with no intent to ever deliver anything. If you want to do something, do something now, face the consequences.

    • You do realize Ireland is not part of the UK right? Farage, the asshole that he is, will have no power over it.

      Unless his solution for the Brexit border issue is to annex Ireland and get rid of the border altogether...

  • The Real Problem. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MadMaverick9 ( 1470565 ) on Wednesday June 19, 2019 @12:32AM (#58786278)

    People are afraid to address the Real Problem.

    Population Growth [wikipedia.org]!!!

    Africa and Middle East are the Big Problem areas.

    Ireland not driving around in petrol & diesel cars ain't gonna do shit.

    And this "ageing population" meme is just bullshit.

    Less people is the only thing that will save this planet.

    Another problem is that way too many people believe that the "markets & economy" can grow indefinitely. Wrong!!!

    The current direction of this planet is un-sustainable.

    Which politician / government has the courage to actually say out loud that current population growth is un-sustainable and do something about it???

    To say it more bluntly - stop fucking like rabbits!!!

  • The screws are tightening on indiscriminate use of internal combustion around the world. Folks should start to think about resale value when purchasing a new car. There is a growing list of jurisdictions around the world that a new IC vehicle will soon no longer have a viable used car market to offload the vehicle into once you're done with it. Even before you're done with a vehicle, there are ever-expanding zones where internal combustion vehicles are prohibited from operating. Trends like this will co

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