National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) are the framework within which European Union Member States must plan their climate and energy objectives, targets, policies, and measures to the European Commission. The Governance Regulation, within which the NECP framework sits, consolidated the existing patchwork of planning, monitoring, and reporting obligations Member States had under the different pieces of EU legislation across energy, climate, and other Energy Union related policy areas.

The NECP is separate from the annually updated Climate Action Plan (CAP), containing climate and energy targets and policies in accordance with the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act. The CAP details measures, policies and programmes which the State intends to deliver. Whereas the NECP has set criteria for which policies and measures can be included in the modelling.

The measures in the most recent versions of the CAPs have been assessed to see if they meet the criteria for inclusion in the With Additional Measures (WAM) and With Existing Measures (WEM) scenarios that will be captured in the final version of the NECP. The outputs from this exercise are not yet finalised. While the draft NECP published in December 2023 set out the measures that the State had already implemented (WEM only) by a date specified in accordance with the terms of the Governance Regulation of the Energy Union, the EU legislation which underpins the NECP process.

The WAM scenario is more ambitious. It is a projection of future energy use based on the measures outlined in the latest Government plans at the time the National Energy Projections are compiled. This includes all policies and measures included in the WEM scenario, plus those included in the latest Government plans but not yet fully implemented.

It should be noted that what can be included in the WEM and WAM scenario is strictly set out by EU Regulation, and therefore, the modelling in the NECP does not automatically align with the most recent version of the domestic policy framework set out in the Climate Action Plan.

A final version of the NECP will be updated in the coming months to reflect updated WEM and WAM projections, which will include policies and measures in place to the end of 2022: the most recent full inventory year available at the time of modelling and will include a range of additional polices and measures under the WAM scenario.

Further consultation will be carried out on the final version of the NECP prior to its submission to the European Commission in June 2024. Respondents should ensure that they understand the basis of the WEM and WAM and respond to one or both public consultations, as appropriate, to give maximum impact to the final NECP to be submitted in June 2024.

The closing date for submissions is 17.30 Thursday 7 March 2024

Submissions should be completed using the questionnaire above and sent by email only to necp@decc.gov.ie with the subject line ‘NECP Consultation’. Read more here