It will cost €50 billion to bring all homes in Ireland up to the required energy efficient standard and a further €30 billion to phase out petrol and diesel cars, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said. These changes will “potentially” increase the cost of both building and buying houses, Mr Varadkar acknowledged, but he added that “you have to think of the opportunity too”. “The cost of retrofitting and insulating all of our homes in Ireland is about €50 billion. He said that while “people tend to focus on dire predictions and doom”, introducing policies to tackle the effects of climate change will lead to new economic opportunities also. I’d like to talk a little bit more in future about the opportunities that will arise from climate changes.”

Source: The Irish Times May 19, 2019 19:52 UTC