Latest news with #Delahunt
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Grid investment key to cutting fossil-fuel use
Proposed spending on the State's electricity grid will be key to cutting our dependence on fossil fuel, says an expert. Oil and gas accounted for 81.4 per cent of total Irish energy consumption last year, an increase of 0.7 per cent on 2023, according to a report published by the Energy Institute, a global body. Planned investment by national grid company EirGrid and ESB Networks would boost the use of electricity and renewables, aiding the Republic in cutting fossil fuel consumption, said James Delahunt, head of energy and natural resources (Ireland) at KPMG, following its publication. [ How Ireland went from first to last in the race to develop offshore wind energy Opens in new window ] The Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU), which oversees the energy sector, recently proposed approving total spending of €14.1 billion up to 2030 by EirGid and ESB Networks, and could allow scope for up to €19 billion depending on the progress each company makes with their plans. The proposal is going through consultation. READ MORE Mr Delahunt, whose firm collaborated with the Energy Institute on the report, said it was likely that both companies would get approval for the spending. EirGrid is responsible for the national grid, which transports electricity from power plants, while ESB Networks manages the lines that bring electricity to individual customers' homes and businesses. Their proposed investment is likely to add up to €16 a year to household electricity bills, according to the CRU, which is why the regulator must approve their plans. 'I don't think the Department of Finance have any respect for the tourism industry' Listen | 41:44 Renewables generate about 40 per cent of electricity used in the Republic annually, mostly wind and solar, with natural gas producing the same amount. Imports account for most of the balance. However, road transport, manufacturing and heating still rely heavily on oil and gas for energy, according to Mr Delahunt. Government climate plans aim to cut some of this dependence by electrifying transport and heat. It is also bidding to increase the use of biofuel for heating. From next year, suppliers of fossil fuels for heating will be obliged to include some renewables in their product offerings. According to the Government, that will start at 1.5 per cent of the energy they supply from next year, rising to 3 per cent the following year. Those targets could increase after a review of the scheme in 2028. Mr Delahunt said the Renewable Heat Obligation , as the scheme will be known, was a welcome step in the right direction. The report by the London-headquartered Energy Institute, an international body of professionals working in the industry, confirmed that the Republic ranked eight out of the top 10 countries in the world for renewable electricity use. According to the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland , total greenhouse gas emissions last year fell 2 per cent to 53.75 million tonnes.
BBC News
02-05-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Kent primary schools involved in butterfly release project
An academic has teamed up with primary schools in Kent as part of a butterfly release scheme aims to encourage expression through positive change with children creating poetry and artwork based on the natural Delahunt, a senior lecturer in Nursing at Canterbury Christ Church University, has been hosting reading sessions with children, and planting butterfly sanctuaries in school gardens as part of his PhD research into creative therapeutics."Butterflies are my metaphor for further change within the current education system for those like me who are hidden disabled," said Mr Delahunt, who has dyslexia. Pupils at Blean Primary School have been working with Mr Delahunt since have watched the insects morph from caterpillars into chrysalises, with their final transformation into butterflies expected in the next head teacher Lynda Prior said: "The children have enjoyed the project. "I wanted them to open up their minds and this has really enabled them to do that."The project is centred around Mr Delahunt's book, the Butterfly Farmer, and it is hoped children involved will be encouraged to be creative. Mr. Delahun, who is also a poet, said: "For neurodivergent individuals, the world is not just a series of fixed, quantifiable events, but a dynamic dance of patterns, music, and colour."When safe and valued, these minds have the unique capacity to see, feel, and express the more subtle, intricate dimensions of existence."Hero, who is in year five at Blean Primary School, said she now has the confidence "to write or draw whatever" comes into her classmate, Tess, has worked at home with her family on a painting of a tree "that shows that all of your thoughts and worries can fall away like leaves."Other schools involved in the project include Bridge, Challock, St Peter's Methodistt, Lady Joanna Thornhill primary and Whitstable Junior.
BBC News
05-04-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Canterbury butterfly project aims to halt Kent population decline
An academic has teamed up with schools across Kent to try and boost butterfly numbers in the county by creating sanctuaries near Delahunt is working with pupils from schools around Kent to create butterfly sanctuaries and release the insects into the wild later this Canterbury Christ Church University lecturer says the project comes ahead of his new book, The Butterfly Farmer, which aims to help explain change to Delahunt, who is dyslexic and has ADHD, said: "I came from a generation where you didn't necessarily thrive in those classroom spaces." He says he wants to use the scheme to help articulate the core messages of his book in a different UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme reported earlier this month that more than half of species in the country are suffering from long-term decline. The project is currently being run in conjunction with five primary schools – Challock, Blean, St Stephens Infant School, Whitstable Junior School and Lady Joanna Thornhill Primary schools are among the first to set up butterfly sanctuaries in their grounds, with Mr Delahunt looking to fund wildflowers for the said he wanted to gradually expand the project to include new Delahunt, whose background is in trauma nursing, said the project came after the success of his first book, The Wandering Lamb, which talks about difference and said: "I have never felt as healed by a process.""It's an opportunity for me to go back and find children like me."
