Renewable energy accounted for 40.2% of electricity generation in Ireland in 2024, up from an average of 5.1% in 1990-1994 (See Table 3.3).
Environment taxes in Ireland amounted to €5.5 billion in 2024, up 10.8% on the 2023 figure of 4.9 billion (See Table 1.1).
Environmental subsidies and similar transfers in Ireland were €1.8 billion in 2023, up from 14.7% from the 2022 figure of €1.6 billion (See Table 1.2).
Fossil fuel subsidies were €4.978 billion in 2023, up 4.9% from €4.744 billion in 2022, and up 74.2% from the 2021 figure of €2.857 billion (See Figure 1.1). The 2022 and 2023 figures reflect the introduction of temporary energy support measures in 2022 in response to rising energy prices.
Dwellings built in recent years are considerably more energy efficient than those constructed in earlier periods, with 98.7% of those constructed during 2020-2024 given a Building Energy Rating of A, compared with just 2.5% in 2000-2004 (See Figure 1.4 and Table 1.7).
In 2024, Ireland’s total metered electricity consumption was 31,903 gigawatt hours. Large energy users, such as data centres and cement manufacturing, were responsible for 31.0% of metered electricity consumption in 2024, up from 14.8% in 2015 (See Figure 1.5 and Table 1.10).
Environmental Indicators Ireland was first published in 2012 on a biennial basis and moved to an annual release in 2018.
A decision was made this year to split the Environmental Indicators into two releases. The first release on Global Context and Climate was published earlier in December covering four environmental themes (Global Context, Greenhouse Gases & Climate Change, Water and Land Use) with 28 indicators.
This release is wide-ranging with a total of 48 indicators covering six themes - Environmental Economy, Air, Energy, Transport, Waste, and Biodiversity.
Many of the indicators are presented in a time-series format for Ireland, while the international context is shown by comparing Ireland with other countries for the latest year for which data are available. Learn more about these indicators in the Background Notes.
We plan to create a hub for environmental data on the CSO website in 2026 where users can easily access the breadth and depth of information that they need. Quarterly releases will also be issued on key themes.
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.
Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (19 December 2025) published Environmental Indicators Ireland 2025 – Economy, Emissions and Energy.
Commenting on the release Reamonn McKeever, Statistician in the Environment Division of the CSO said: “Today, we publish the CSO’s 2025 release on Environmental Indicators Ireland – Economy, Emissions and Energy. This release covers 48 indicators under six key themes (See Editor’s Note below). This is the second of two releases covering environmental indicators in Ireland with the first release on Global Context and Climate published earlier in December 2025.
Energy Production
This release highlights that as our economy and population grows, production of energy continues to increase, to meet that demand and more of that energy is now sourced from renewable sources, which in turn drives lower emissions from energy production.
Transport
Transport can be a significant contributor to emissions levels in Ireland, and post COVID-19, we have returned to previous transport behaviours:
Waste
A growing economy, increased house-building and higher population levels, have the capacity to generate more waste unless circular economy practices such as “reduce, reuse and recycle” are adopted. We can see that:
Biodiversity