In 2018, Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions were 60.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. This was 9.9% higher than the 1990 figure of 55.5 million tonnes.

In 2018, Ireland ranked seventh worst out of 28 EU Member States in terms of its total greenhouse gas emissions at 89.0 relative to the base year of 2005=100. The United Kingdom had the best performance with a ratio of 68.6 in 2018 relative to 100 in the base year of 2005.

In 2018, Ireland had the third worst emissions of greenhouse gases per capita in the EU at 12.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per capita. Ireland’s emissions were 53% higher than the EU28 average of 8.2 tonnes. Estonia and Luxembourg had the highest level of CO₂ emissions per capita in 2018 at 15.1 and 17.5 tonnes respectively. Malta had the lowest rate of emissions in 2018 at 4.6 tonnes per capita.

Agriculture was the sector with the largest greenhouse gas emissions in Ireland over the 1990-2018 period with 33.9% of the total in 2018.

The transport share of greenhouse gas emissions increased from 9.3% in 1990 to 20.1% in 2018. The energy sector’s share of greenhouse gas emissions in 2018 was the third largest sectoral contributor to emissions with 17.4% of the total.

Average annual temperature in Ireland over the 1961-2019 period varied between 8.2° Celsius in 1963 and 1986 and 10.4° Celsius in 2007.The average annual temperature in 2019 was 10.2° Celsius.

Average annual rainfall in Ireland over the 1941-2019 period varied between 912 millimetres in 1971 and 1,506 millimetres in 2009. The average rainfall figure in 2019 was 1,370 millimetres.