UN CLIMATE chief Christiana Figueres has welcomed the fact that more than 18 countries – almost all of them major emitters of greenhouse gases – have passed climate change legislation, “coming to the negotiations [in Durban] . . . from a very productive view”.
Ireland is not one of them. Despite promising last March that he would implement a “different type” of climate change Bill from the one tabled by his predecessor John Gormley, Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan ditched it last month in favour of concentrating on “policy”.
Just over a month earlier, Hogan axed Comhar, the Sustainable Development Council – which was advising on policy – saying its work would be taken on by the National Economic and Social Council. But it, in turn, may soon be merged with the Economic and Social Research Institute.
The Minister announced his decision to defer climate change legislation following an internal review by his department of national climate policy, which highlighted the daunting challenge faced by Ireland in meeting EU targets for a 20 per cent cut in emissions by 2020.
Under the Kyoto protocol, Ireland is only required to limit its emissions at 13 per cent above 1990 levels by 2012. “A real concern is the fact that the mitigation generated by the end of 2012 will be dwarfed by the need for much deeper mitigation in the future,” the review said.
Even though the economic downturn has led to some reductions in emissions – which will help Ireland to meet its Kyoto targets for 2008 to 2012 – the review said “substantial mitigation policy actions” were required to “deliver compliance” with the EU target for 2020.
“A critical consideration in reviewing national climate policy is the fact that the current mitigation target for 2020, which is binding under EU law, is almost certain to increase in ambition in the context of ongoing EU policy development,” possibly to 30 per cent, it warned.
Although compliance was “not entirely out of reach”, it cautioned that “making policy based on a relatively benign set of assumptions would be dangerous and could embed a long-term dependence on international [carbon] permits at a significant cost to the exchequer”.
Given that only 28 per cent of Ireland’s emissions (from electricity generation and industry) are covered by the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, it said the “policy challenge” was to deal with emissions from agriculture and transport, which account for 50 per cent of the total.
But the Minister has ruled out setting any sectoral targets for cutting emissions – a decision described as “retrograde” by Green Party leader and former minister for energy Eamon Ryan.
“If you do not measure something, it’s a signal that it does not matter,” he said.
Leaping to his own defence, Hogan said: “I have stated clearly that it is my objective to introduce climate legislation over the lifetime of the Government, but policy development to underpin deeper mitigation is the most urgent issue and must therefore be the immediate priority.”
Accordingly, he has asked the National Economic and Social Council – assuming it is not abolished by mid-2012 – to report to him within 12 months on policy initiatives to achieve a low-carbon economy while he engages in a second round of consultations with “stakeholders”.
Describing this as “paralysis by analysis”, Tara Connolly of the environmental pillar of social partnership said: “We are only nine years away from our 2020 targets and we cannot wait another year to implement policies that reduce Ireland’s carbon emissions.”
Meanwhile, An Taisce – whose president is climate change expert Prof John Sweeney of NUI Maynooth – has suffered a substantial cut in core funding from the Department of the Environment, which it said would “compromise its ability to engage constructively” with the Government.
All in all, Hogan will be travelling to Durban this weekend with almost empty hands to participate in the “high-level” segment of the UN climate change conference, including the co-ordination of EU policy on key issues in the negotiations.