Electric vehicles accounted for 24% of all new cars sold between January and March, surpassing diesel sales for the first time.
The statistics are in the Government’s new quarterly report on the implementation of its Climate Action Plan, which will be examined by the Council of Ministers today.
The report shows that the Government has implemented 75% of the actions it said it would carry out in the first three months of the year.
27 of the 36 actions scheduled for delivery were completed on time this quarter.
Three departments complied with all the actions of their competence during the quarter: the Departments of Finance; Business, Trade and Employment; and Foreign Affairs.
However, the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications only had a delivery rate of 71%, despite having the largest number of actions to complete.
The Department of Agriculture, which had the second highest number of actions, had an implementation rate of 91%.
In terms of electricity, just under 35% was produced from renewable sources by 2022 and Ireland reached half of its onshore wind target by 2030.
What are described as “key actions” include the launch of the €1.5 billion Agricultural Rural Environment Plan (ACRES) to help improve biodiversity, climate, air and water quality .
He said that in the first three months alone, there were more than 46,000 applications, representing a third of the country’s 135,000 farms.
