"What can't be measured can't be managed", the new Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, observed in a speech yesterday to mark the publication of the latest assessment by the Environmental Protection Agency of our performance in managing Ireland's environment against the backdrop of unprecedented economic growth.
Though the Minister was able to gather some crumbs of comfort from "Environment in Focus 2002", such as the marginal improvement in river water quality, the report makes grim reading even if much of the raw data it contains is already in the public realm.
We know, for example, that over 30 per cent of river channel is still classified as polluted to some extent - some of it seriously; that groundwater and private wells in many areas show unacceptably high levels of bacteriological contamination; that we are running out of landfill sites for the mountain of waste we produce every year; that ever-increasing volumes of road traffic are causing serious pollution and congestion; and that our greenhouse gas emissions are soaring well above the cap set for us under the EU burden-sharing deal to implement the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change.
But what makes "Environment in Focus 20002" worthwhile is that it provides a ready-reckoner, across a broad range of 50 key indicators, of how we fare in managing these and other environmental pressures. The strong message that comes through is we must do a lot more to break the link between - or de-couple, in the current jargon - rapid economic growth, on the one hand, and widespread environmental degradation and resource consumption, on the other. What that means is adopting the concept of "eco-efficiency" - of doing more with less, of treading less heavily on the Earth.
Why is it that a State which has projected an image of itself as being "clean and green" lags so far behind other European countries in such areas as renewable energy and organic farming? As the EPA report shows, renewables currently supply only 1.8 per cent of our total primary energy requirement, compared to imported oil's still-colossal 56.7 per cent, while the acreage given over to organic farming is less than a third of the EU average. Yet intensive agriculture is one of the principal culprits for environmental degradation while burning fossil fuels such as oil contributes appreciably to climate change.
Mr Cullen, who is still reading himself into his new portfolio, has promised "resolute measures" and even personal leadership in the cause of protecting the environment. Ensuring that local authorities properly discharge their functions and that penalties reflect the level of environmental damage would obviously be steps in the right direction. But the Minister should also reflect the lesson inherent in the unqualified success of the 15 cent tax on plastic supermarket bags - that fiscal measures make a difference, as the ESRI has been saying for many years. Having done so, Mr Cullen should seek to overcome the obvious scepticism of the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, about the benefits of eco-taxation .