The drive towards net zero carbon and affordable energy will provide opportunities to create jobs and encourage investment.<\/p>\n
That was the key message from Economy Minister Diane Dodds today as she launched a public consultation on a new Northern Ireland Energy Strategy.<\/p>\n
The Minister said:\u00a0\u201c<\/em>Climate change is one of the biggest issues facing society and we are also dealing with the economic impact of the pandemic.\u00a0 Whilst these are undoubtedly challenges for us, we must look for the unique opportunities to shape our future.<\/p>\n Carbon emissions<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe have seen the success that Northern Ireland has had in meeting almost 50% of our electricity consumption from renewable sources.\u00a0 In order to eliminate carbon emissions from energy, our business and domestic consumers will need to make cleaner, leaner energy choices which will include moving away from fossil fuels by switching to renewable technologies and doing more with less.\u201d<\/p>\n Five principles<\/strong><\/p>\n The consultation is based on five principles which will shape the energy transition.\u00a0 Energy users are of central importance to the future strategy, and \u201cplacing you at the heart of our energy future\u201d is the fundamental cross-cutting principle, which aims to enable and protect energy consumers.<\/p>\n Other principles include, \u201cgrow a green economy\u201d to provide economic opportunities; \u201cdo more with less\u201d to drive improvements in energy efficiency; \u201creplace fossil fuels with indigenous renewables\u201d to decarbonise power, heat and transport; and \u201ccreate a flexible and integrated energy system\u201d to provide value for consumers and enhance energy security.<\/p>\n Options consultation<\/strong><\/p>\n The options consultation includes access to an innovative online interactive simulation, called the NI regional energy transition model.\u00a0 This provides a representation of the major energy sectors and sub sectors which allows users – who could be anyone from industry to businesses to researchers to the public – to explore future changes to the energy system and to assess their impacts on current and future regional energy demand and associated CO2 emissions.<\/p>\n Clean energy<\/strong><\/p>\n And Managing Director of Northern Ireland Electricity, Paul Stapleton said: \u201cAs owner of the electricity networks in Northern Ireland, we understand the role clean energy has in reducing our carbon footprint and supporting economic recovery.\u00a0 This ambitious paper shines a light on our path to delivering a sustainable and affordable energy system, and ultimately achieving net zero carbon.\u00a0 I would encourage everyone to take part in the consultation.\u201d<\/p>\n The Minister concluded: <\/strong>\u201cI urge everyone to get involved in our consultation today, and together we can help shape an energy future that places your needs at the heart of Northern Ireland\u2019s energy strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n The consultation will be open from 31 March 2021 to 30 June 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The drive towards net zero carbon and affordable energy will provide opportunities to create jobs and encourage investment. That was the key message from Economy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16078"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16078"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16093,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16078\/revisions\/16093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}