Industrial emissions from milk processing sites in Ireland dropped 3% last year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The drop in emissions from dairy processing sites comes despite co-ops processing a record 7.9bn litres of milk last year.

Co-ops and other processors continue to move to renewable sources of energy to run their plants. Dairygold recently announced that it is now using 100% renewable electricity at all of its processing sites, while Carbery is also close to using 100% electricity.

Power generation

Overall, the EPA said greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from industrial sources and power generation decreased 8.7% last year. This was mostly due to a 65% decline in emissions from the ESB’s coal-fired power plant at Moneypoint.

“The decrease in emissions is due to a significant drop in power generation emissions (a 12.3% decrease) as a result of the strong presence of renewable energy – mainly wind generation – and less use of fossil fuels in our energy mix,” the EPA said.

“Emissions decreased by 65% from the ESB coal-fired plant at Moneypoint, again mainly due to the availability of renewables.”

EPA senior manager Maria Martin said that Ireland still needed to see “consistent reductions in emissions across all sectors to reach our goal of a low-carbon economy”.