Climate strategy is off the rails

The National Climate Change Strategy, published in 2000, was meant to form the basis of Government policy and action on how Ireland…

The National Climate Change Strategy, published in 2000, was meant to form the basis of Government policy and action on how Ireland would comply with the Kyoto Protocol and limit its greenhouse gas emissions to no more than 13 per cent above 1990 levels in the period 2008-2012.

With less than 18 months to go, it beggars belief that Minister for the Environment Dick Roche has only issued a discussion document on the issues involved in meeting this challenging target; a revised strategy containing concrete measures will not be produced until the end of this year, if even then.

It is already clear that the Government has decided to buy its way out of the problem of compliance by purchasing credits for emission reductions elsewhere - though Mr Roche himself conceded this week this was "not the best solution for Ireland in the longer term".

His department's press release headlined a claim that the discussion document recorded "major progress . . . in reducing emissions across all sectors" of the economy. This is transparently untrue. Whatever about reductions in emissions from industry, the document acknowledges the transport sector has seen "sustained increases", with its emissions rising by 144 per cent between 1990 and 2004. While growth is attributable to Northern motorists and truck drivers purchasing cheaper fuel in the South, the bulk of it is due to the huge increase in road traffic. It has also been aggravated by urban sprawl and long-distance commuting - a trend encouraged by the Government's laissez-faire planning policies.

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One might have expected that the discussion document would include some analysis of how effective the National Climate Change Strategy had turned out in reality, but it shirks any attempt to measure progress against the sectoral targets laid down in 2000. This sleight of hand is understandable, given that so few of policy proposals made then have actually been implemented; examples include the Government's decisions not to proceed with a carbon tax and to continue using coal to fire the ESB's Moneypoint power station, in the interest of fuel security. Other proposals were only adopted in a partial fashion, such as "rebalancing" of Vehicle Registration Tax to reflect the carbon dioxide emissions of cars and other vehicles; we are now told the Government is "currently assessing the feasibility of rebalancing VRT", beyond the Budget concessions already given to hybrid-electric and biofuel cars.

In truth, the National Climate Change Strategy was never taken seriously. As a result, Ireland is facing a shortfall of more than seven million tonnes a year in terms of distance it has to travel in meeting its Kyoto target. Unless the Government starts facing up to our international obligations to combat climate change, spelling out clearly what needs to be done, we cannot expect to make the much deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions required to deal with dangers represented by a rapidly warming world.