Funding of €26 million has been announced for the third call of the Energy Efficiency and Decarbonisation Pathfinder Programme for the higher education sector.

This is a key climate action measure which will support higher education institutions in making progress towards 2030 targets of a 50% improvement in energy efficiency and 51% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The pathfinder programme will continue to test a range of building retrofit approaches to build evidence and capability in the sector, and to inform decisions as larger scale programmes are rolled out in the future.

The programme is co-funded by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications under Project Ireland 2040, and administered through the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) and Higher Education Authority (HEA).

Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris TD said: "I am delighted to announce that we are again increasing the funding available in this programme to advance the climate action agenda in the higher education sector.

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"This is part of our national endeavour requiring sustained engagement with the higher education sector. We want more institutions involved and more money making a difference and enabling transformational change. The HEA are playing a key role in leading out this programme within the sector, and are crucially gathering lessons learned from this key pathfinding programme.

"Our 2030 targets for energy efficiency and decarbonisation are ambitious, but I'm here to say that we are committed to doing our part. This programme will help institutions get there, developing and disseminating knowledge on a range of decarbonisation pathways will work for the sector as a whole. This of course is building on the excellent work already being done by the sector in the area of sustainability and climate action."

Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications Eamon Ryan TD said: "The Energy Efficiency and Decarbonisation Pathfinder Programme is delivering significant energy savings and emission reductions while improving learning environments for our young people.

"The Programme also continues to be highly successful in testing retrofit and decarbonisation solutions in higher education campuses across the country, meaning that we are gathering the evidence needed to scale up and speed up our transition over coming years.

"I am delighted that we are announcing this third call for funding, building on the work that has been done already and putting in place the new systems and processes we need to continue to make progress towards the 2030 targets of a 50% improvement in energy efficiency and 51% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions."