Paul Deane’s Post

Ireland recorded a significant reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from the electricity sector in 2024, partly due to record levels of electricity imports from the UK. Emissions from electricity (or any commodity) produced in another country and consumed in Ireland are recorded in the country of production, not consumption. This raises the question of whether such electricity flows are environmentally beneficial or constitute carbon leakage. Brian Whooley analysed 15-minute power system data for the All-Island system and the UK for 2024. He found that these electricity flows provided a net environmental benefit when compared to a counterfactual scenario in which the same volume of imported electricity was instead produced domestically in Ireland at the same time. The findings show that interconnector imports abated over 634,000 tonnes of CO₂ across the island of Ireland, and over 481,000 tonnes for the Republic of Ireland when compared to concurrent domestic generation alternatives. A hypothetical scenario was examined, in which unused renewable energy was used to replace interconnector imports when possible. This was shown to further improve the overall net environmental benefit. However, this scenario was highly simplified and represents a maximum theoretical possibility rather than a realistically achievable outcome. The analysis has policy relevance for the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) in relation to electricity flows to the Republic of Ireland because it shows no indication of carbon leakage in the data examined. It also highlights the importance of prioritising domestic renewable generation over imports where feasible, in order to maximise environmental benefits. The paper, methodology, calculations, and data are available below. https://lnkd.in/ei8S8rjq