Business

Climate rules could scupper new FDI projects

IDA and Enterprise Ireland will have to weigh number of new jobs against environmental impact of investments, while new greenfield projects will be restricted to those that align with climate policy

Leo Varadkar, Tánaiste and Miniser for Enterprise: an Enterprise Ireland spokesman said it had worked with department officials to amend the agency’s economic appraisal model to ‘factor in the cost of carbon’ in the cost-benefit analysis of investing in projects

IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland must consider the carbon emissions of any proposed investment projects when making funding decisions from next year, in a significant policy shift that could result in new investment opportunities being rejected by the state.

Under a change of government strategy, the country’s industrial agencies will be required to consider the environmental impact of new investments on a par with other factors such as the number of jobs a project would ...