Sir, – Not many realise that Irish taxpayers have already spent over €120 million in penalties and offsets because of Ireland’s failure to meet climate commitments under the Kyoto Protocol 2013 to 2020 and the Paris Climate Agreement 2015.
In fact, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has just recently authorised payment of €2.9 million to Slovenia under the EU Emissions Trading System for 4.1 million carbon credits to offset Government’s failure to achieve 2020 emissions target, despite claiming in the Climate Action Plan 2019 that we would be exemplars and world leaders in all climate matters.
Regrettably, the reality is somewhat different in that we are top of the EU league of climate laggards, and it is generally agreed now that we will fall far short of the Coalition’s international commitment to cut national emissions by 51 per cent by 2030.
Recent scathing reports from the Environment Protection Agency and the Climate Change Advisory Council confirmed that, at the current rate of progress, Ireland will fall far short of national and international 2030 agreements.
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While this inevitable failure will result in major reputational embarrassment and damage, it is now agreed by many TDs and commentators that the resultant penalties and offsets will cost the hapless taxpayer a staggering €8 billion, more than a quarter of all income taxes collected annually.
Also, the Government of the day will be inundated with High Court actions from environmentalists, demanding that we plough ahead, irrespective of the dire consequences for societal stability and the economy.
This appalling vista begs the question as to what action should the Coalition take, in the national interest, bearing in mind that Ireland’s contribution to global warming is minuscule – 0.11 per cent according to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – compared to the major polluters in the G7 and G20 nations.
Irish citizens were never consulted about the drip-fed, top-down, life-changing and draconian demands to achieve the unachievable. They will not be browbeaten by doomsday rhetoric into accepting ever more stringent and unnecessary demands, concocted in panic by the Green Party as we approach 2030.
The onus is on the Coalition to act pragmatically and responsibly, to put egos aside and immediately go cap in hand to the EU and the UN and renegotiate new attainable targets, commensurate with our scientifically proven responsibility for global warming, as recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Such an enlightened approach would hopefully galvanise anew the support for all sectors of the economy, to achieve a far more effective and cohesive outcome to reducing our emissions. – Yours, etc,
JOHN LEAHY,
Cork.