People in Ireland more concerned about local than global environment issues

A majority of people living rurally in Ireland say they would not park-up their cars in the event of a 10 per cent hike on petrol or diesel because the public transport options available are not good enough, research from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has found.

Almost 70 per cent of respondents from rural households indicated that they would continue to use their vehicles to the same extent if fuel price increased sharply because they have no alternative.

A smaller proportion of households (31 per cent) said they would not make energy efficiency improvements to their home even if taxes on home heating fuels went up by 10 per cent because of the up-front costs involved in retrofitting.

The CSO surveyed households on environmental matters in advance of the UN Cop26 climate summit, which is taking place in Glasgow. Some 25,000 households from every county participated in the study, with the sample including a representative mix of answers from owner-occupied, private rented and local authority rented dwellings.

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The results show that 69 per cent of respondents rate climate change as a very important environmental concern. This was the first time that this question was asked by the CSO.

However, more householders rated water pollution (79 per cent), plastic waste (74 per cent) and air pollution (72 per cent) as more important issues for them.

Traffic restrictions

Just 29 per cent of Irish households would support traffic restrictions such as congestion charges and low emission zones in polluted areas.

Almost two-thirds of households surveyed (62 per cent) believe biodiversity concerns should be taken into account when new infrastructure is being planned.

CSO statistician Claire O’Hara said the survey revealed that people are more interested in environmental issues when it pertained to their localities than the global issues.

“People are concerned about all of these environmental issues. The immediate local issues of air and water pollution seems to be of more concern to people than the global issue of climate change still,” she said.

“A significant proportion of people feel they cannot afford or do not have an alternative when taxes are increased on heating or transport.”

Emissions decreased

The latest figures by the CSO show that greenhouse gas emissions decreased in most sectors from 2018 to 2019.

Greenhouse gas emissions by resident units fell 3 per cent to 76.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent from 2018 to 2019.

Territorial greenhouse gas emissions (emissions produced exclusively within the State) decreased by 4 per cent to 59.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent from 2018 to 2019.

Greenhouse gas emissions from industry fell 7 per cent in 2019, but increased in the service sector, which includes road and air transport, by 2 per cent.

The services sector produced 31 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, with the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector producing 28 per cent and the industry sector accounting for 24 per cent of the total. The remaining 17 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions were emitted by households.