Athlone man says Ireland can meet emission targets with just four numbers

Cracking-Carbon is a midlands-based initiative that wants to change the way we approach our climate action responsibilities.

Based out of Roscommon, it is run by Athlone native Simon Ruddy.

Firstly, it wants to cut-through the masses of figures, data and information coming at people in terms of what they should be doing to lower their GHG emissions; whether in their home lives or working lives.

In order to achieve this, they have developed a 'One sector – one metric' approach. Cracking-Carbon has blended data from over 70 sources and distilled this data down to just one figure, one metric, for each of 4 key emissions producing sectors; Domestic/Household; Industry/Commercial (including retail); Transport (excl. family cars) and Agriculture

This means people have just one key figure they need to remember and apply to their household, workplace or farm in order kick-off immediately on their emissions reduction journey, whilst also aligning themselves to Ireland's national annual 7% emissions reduction goal.

Starting with household emissions, Cracking-Carbon has arrived at one reduction metric that will ensure households nationwide have just one number to remember; one number that provides them with a clear pathway to achieving 51% emissions reductions by 2030 in their home.

Cracking-Carbon calculates average household emissions in Ireland at 10.7tns annually.

Cracking-Carbon founder Simon Ruddy explains: “We calculate household emissions differently; we include the family car, or cars for example.

“Using these calculations, we were able to arrive at an annual reduction target of 750kgs (7%) per household, which would ensure this sector of emissions achieves its combined target reductions for 2022.”

The target is 1.3m tonnes, which works out 750kgs per household across the 1.7 million households across Ireland.

Cracking-Carbon then goes a step further by analysing each activity within each sector in order to provide citizens with simple measure they can introduce in their lives in order to achieve these emissions reductions ( The Cracking-Carbon Steering Wheel offers households seven simple steps they can introduce in their homes over seven weeks, which would deliver the 7% emissions reduction they would need to achieve in 2022.

The Cracking-Carbon Steering Wheel has enough flexibility build-in to accommodate different size homes, families and types of homes in terms of whether it's a newly built, energy efficient home, or a poorly insulated 1990's build.

“We advise householders to focus more on the measure that will get them to their 750kgs annual emissions reductions,” added Ruddy.

Cracking-Carbon will publish a new chart each year, through 2030, with seven new steps for achieving emissions reductions for that year.

In terms of the other three sectors; industry/commercial, transport and agriculture, Cracking-Carbon has developed a new standardised reduction metric for each of these sectors and is in the process of communicating with these sectors with regard to developing steps to ensure each sector can achieve these reductions.

Industry/Commercial: (Including retail): All businesses across Ireland should target reductions of 378kgs per person employed.

Most industry and business representative groups have published steps for reducing emissions in different categories of industry. This measure will achieve the 630,000 tonnes (7%) emissions reductions required from this sector, while also offering an easy-to-calculate and implement reduction metric for every business, big or small.

Transport: Transport providers should target emissions reduction of 1,350kgs per vehicle they operate. This will deliver emissions reductions of 844,000 tonnes in 2022, or 7% of total emissions of 12m tonnes from this sector annually, and again, provides operators with one simple calculations they can immediately apply to their operation.

Agriculture: Each farmer should target emissions reductions of just 101kgs per acre of land they farm, allowing for an easy-to-follow calculation for all farmers and a fair and equitable distribution of emissions reductions targets across this sector, as it allows for the scale and size of individual farms; whilst also ensuring the farming sector hits its 1.1m tonnes emissions reduction target for 2022.

In case you haven't been adding-up as you went along! The 4 totals in terms of total emissions required or achieved (if each of the reductions metrics outlined above were fully implemented) gives a grand total of just below 4m tonnes of emissions in 2022, which is very close to the national target of 7% of the projected 57m tonnes of GHG gases Ireland is expected to generate in 2022.

Cracking-Carbon has also identified an element of fatigue around the issue of Climate Awareness/Climate Action. Simon believes this is due to the constant messaging around the subject, and the endless barrage of facts, figures and suggestions coming at people in terms of what they need to be doing to reduce their household, farm or workplace emissions.

“We decided therefore,” Ruddy explained “that the topic of reducing emissions needed to be 'lightened'... and made more 'digestible.”

To do this it has developed two initiatives initially, with a third in the pipeline.

These include Cracking-Carbon Climate Action & Sustainability Quiz, which is proving extremely popular and injects an element of fun into the debate, This is offered to post-primary schools nationwide (via Local Authority or business sponsorship), and directly to employers as part of their broader wellbeing, CSR and climate awareness programmes.

“Running parallel to this we offer firms our Climate Action Workshop, which guides people to more sustainable lives through the implementation of measures outlined in our Cracking-Carbon Steering Wheel. We also present 'Ireland 2050' based on synopsis of modelling from scientist, in terms of how Ireland will be increasingly impacted due to climate change; specifically, due to the continued weakening of the gulf stream.

“We believe the combination of initiatives outlined above offers a more people friendly, easy-to-digest approach to tackling this enormous challenge facing us in terms of averting what is rapidly becoming the greatest man-made catastrophe in the history of our planet.”