World leaders cannot fail to respond to what United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres has called an "unprecedented public mobilisation" for action on climate change, highlighted by Sunday's massive march through Manhattan and numerous other demonstrations across the globe. As more than 120 presidents, prime ministers and other leading figures gather in New York for United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon's climate summit today, everyone concerned about the future of the planet needs to hear firm pledges that action will be taken to cut record greenhouse gas emissions if we are to have any chance of capping the rise in global temperatures at no more than 2 degrees Celsius.
That's the target already agreed by world leaders if we are avoid dangerous climate change; what they need to spell out today is how it will actually be achieved. The most important action that could be taken is to put a realistic price on carbon, which 73 countries – including Ireland – say they support, according to a World Bank survey published yesterday.
Among major emitters, China is on the list, but the United States is not – although several US states are committed to carbon pricing, notably California and Massachusetts. As World Bank president Jim Yong Kim noted, those who have signed the pledge represent almost half of the world's population and 52 per cent of global GDP, and they have "thrown their weight behind a price on carbon as a necessary, if insufficient, solution to climate change and a step on the path to low-carbon growth".
To make a real difference, however, the price needs to be sufficiently robust to promote a switch to renewable energy sources. Carbon pricing is not painless. It will inevitably mean dearer petrol, coal, gas and home heating oil, which would not be popular in Ireland on top of such impositions as residential property tax and water charges. But if it was done cleverly, the revenue raised could be used to reduce penally high income tax and the universal social charge; in other words, it could be “revenue neutral”.
The Government also needs to increase substantially the level of grant-aid to enable people to improve the energy performance of their homes, especially in the wake of a recent survey showing that the majority of houses in Dublin have a pathetically low Building Energy Rating of "D1", or worse. Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has an opportunity to change that in his forthcoming Budget and should not fail to do so.
There is real disappointment at the UN that neither Chinese president Xi Jinping nor India's new prime minister, Narendra Modi, are attending today's one-day summit. Nonetheless, it is bound to mark a significant moment in the ongoing battle against global warming.