Irish intent on showing climate credentials

A Government delegation is heading to Copenhagen with several initiatives, writes Harry McGee , Political Correspondent

A Government delegation is heading to Copenhagen with several initiatives, writes Harry McGee, Political Correspondent

WITH A Green presence in the Coalition, it is hardly surprising that the Irish Government has been one of the most vocal supporters of the EU revised target of a 30 per cent reduction in emissions by 2020.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen and the two Green Ministers are travelling to Copenhagen for the UN climate change conference armed with a number of new initiatives and commitments designed to show the seriousness of the Government’s intent on this issue.

At the summit of EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday, Cowen announced he was increasing Ireland’s pledge to the EU’s

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“fast start” programme to fund climate change work in developing countries. He said Ireland’s contribution to the fund would be up to €100 million. The EU-wide programme is likely to cost about €7.2 billion.

Pro rata it is a generous gesture, though Cowen has yet to clarify if this will impinge on the overseas development aid budget. The Taoiseach himself will visit Copenhagen from Thursday, when it will be becoming clear if a deal is attainable or not.

The other two “tangibles” that emerged this week included the carbon levy, which puts a price on carbon (€15 per tonne) in the Irish economy for the first time. The second was Minister for the Environment John Gormley publishing a framework for a Climate Change Bill.

A framework is the earliest possible draft of a Bill and contains an outline of the policies that it is likely to contain. The most important of those is the new target it has set for greenhouse emissions. There will be a legal obligation on the State to reduce, before 2050, emissions by 80 per cent compared to 1990 levels. Emissions in 1990 were about 54.5 million tonnes. They are about 65 million tonnes a year now. Within four decades they will have to fall to less than 11 million tonnes, essentially to what they were three or four decades ago.

Because the EU is negotiating as a bloc, its position reflects the Irish one, though the Government wants the EU to reach the most ambitious deal possible. The three public announcements, the Government argues, shows its sincerity in relation to this issue.

Speaking in advance of his departure to Copenhagen, Gormley said the question of finance for developing countries would be a key part of the deal. Wrangles over how much richer countries should pay poorer countries to mitigate, or adapt to, climate change will dominate the negotiations this week.

He also emphasised the leadership and “vanguard” role the EU needs to play. He said the fast-start commitment was important, as was the move to get agreement from the biggest emitters to grapple seriously with this global problem.

“We need to maintain our leadership role. If there are comparable efforts from other countries we will step up [the EU target] to 30 per cent . . . [The most important aim] is that we have a real road map that we can get to a legally binding treaty.”

While the Government’s pledge of €100 million is sizeable, the question about the source of the funding is critical. NGOs have called for “additionality”, that is, for the money to come out of central funds and not out of the overseas aid budget.

Cowen said on Thursday that no decision had been taken on this issue, although it was clear that the Green Ministers favoured additionality. Gormley said: “Obviously the Government has to discuss this issue in detail. My personal position is [for] 100 per cent additionality.”

It is too early in the negotiations, according to the Government, to say if the EU will be willing to shift its current target of a 20 per cent reduction to 30 per cent.

“Difficult and distasteful as I find this negotiation, I know what has to be done and what can be done, as a political realist. This is the nature of negotiations,” said Gormley.

“There are many within the EU who will argue that we can’t give it all ways, that we can only give 30 per cent in some conditions,” he said. “The EU is in the vanguard. At the same time we recognise that you cannot allow everybody off. I hope, I genuinely hope, that we can get up to 30 per cent.”