Madam, - I must congratulate The Irish Time son its excellent coverage of global warming in recent weeks.
With respect to Ireland's shameful record on greenhouse gas emissions, however, it is simply not true that greater energy efficiency in vehicles will slash the carbon footprint of transport. Take the figures published in Thursday's edition. The make of car with the biggest reduction in CO2 emissions between 1997 and 2005 was the Mercedes. It showed a 38 per cent drop. For a motorist driving 20,000km per year, this represents a carbon dioxide reduction of about 0.75 tonnes.
That sounds quite impressive until one factors in the carbon emissions which result from the manufacture of the car itself, which are in the region of 40 tonnes. No matter how long one drives a new "low-emission" car, it will never overcome the massive carbon footprint of manufacture. Thus, one should always drive an old car as long as possible.
That is not to say we should n't make new cars meet higher standards, but far greater reductions in global CO2 emissions will result from introducing incentives for people to hold on to the cars they have than from promoting the sale of fancy new hybrids. Unfortunately, this has no political merit in countries like ours, as the cars are manufactured elsewhere and are someone else's greenhouse gas emission problem.
- Yours, etc,
ANDY WILSON, The Sustainability Institute, Sandyhill,Westport, Co Mayo.
Madam, - There is a lot of talk about our carbon emissions and the fact that we are more than 12 per cent above our Kyoto commitments.
In Ireland we consume approximately 1 million tonnes of road diesel a year.This has an equivalent CO2 emission level of 2 million tonnes. If we simply replace all our road diesel with biodiesel, we will lower our emission rates to the levels of the mid-1980s, bringing us well into compliance with Kyoto.
The way to do this is twofold but simple. Diesel engines produce approximately 30 per cent less CO2 per kilometre than petrol engines. Firstly, we should eliminate VRT on diesel cars encouraging a switch to diesel engines. Secondly, we should introduce the same tax/excise system as exists in the UK. This should have no effect on the tax take: what the taxman loses on the biodiesel, he will gain on the fossil fuel. EN 14214 biodiesel runs more efficiently and more cleanly than fossil diesel in all diesel engines without modification.
The technology, infrastructure, know-how, finance and feedstock exist to produce this amount of biodiesel domestically. All the industry needs is the incentive. - Yours, etc,
TIM DOYLE, MDM Oil, Lower Baggot Street, Dublin 2
Madam, - A noticeable feature of driving in Irish towns and cities is that it involves excessive stopping and starting due to the vast number of traffic lights which our local authorities have erected. Stop-start traffic is the most polluting. A low-cost way to reduce our carbon emissions would be to eliminate all unnecessary stops and in many cases the traffic lights themselves. Ever noticed how the traffic appears to run much more smoothly when the traffic lights are broken? - Yours, etc,
AILBHE M. MURRAY, Carraig Glen, Dublin 18.