Full coverage: Environment

From ending coal use to promoting offshore wind energy, integrating hydrogen fuel and channelling investment to the west coast, last week’s ESB announcement ticks all the boxes. It also hopefully marks a new departure from piecemeal policy.

As Ireland searches for a more sustainable housing model, the group that spearheaded greener living in Cloughjordan is often held as an example but it wasn’t spared by the recession’s credit crunch. Through sheer willpower, its inhabitants have kept it afloat.

Exclusive figures compiled by Greenpeace estimate the digital giant’s power demand for its expanding data hosting business in Ireland. The numbers add up, and they show AWS has a long way to go to its full renewable commitment

Directing pension savings towards ESG investment in Ireland is no mean feat, but there is now a widely shared expectation that Joe Biden’s election will make it more mainstream – and more profitable.

As budgetary caution evaporates under the Covid-19 shock, energy efficiency, buses and trains are getting funded like never before. Can these new environmental priorities survive into the future?

The Programme for Government has promised €9.5 billion to help households and farmers become greener, funded by a four-fold increase in carbon tax over the coming decade. Data compiled by tax officials shows this is unlikely to happen.

The south coast of Dublin has been radically reimagined as a haven for cyclists. The Currency's Tom Lyons takes to his bike and meets the man driving the project.

Norman Crowley has set his global carbon efficiency business on a path to double revenue every year – although he acknowledges a nine-month setback from Covid-19. As the Greens are set to enter government here, does he expect a policy boost to his business? “No.”

While political agitation focuses on the already agreed target of a 7% annual cut in greenhouse gas emissions for the next decade, the real question is whether the next Government will agree to spend Covid-19 recovery funds in a way that makes low-carbon technologies more attractive than increasingly cheap fossil fuels.

Michael O’Dwyer got the idea for his business as a young engineer ridding Dublin’s sewers of grease and fat. He now leads an exciting startup that has just closed a new fundraising round with big-name backers.