Madam, – Reducing carbon emissions is the reason more than 130 world leaders made the journey to Copenhagen for the climate change conference. Burning waste – instead of recycling it – increases carbon emissions, and work has now started on an incinerator in Dublin which is planned to have double the capacity that’s needed. So who is going to pay for the emissions caused by burning waste instead of recycling it? It won’t, we suggest, be the promoters of the project.
It is also proposed to build another incinerator, this time on a flood-prone Cork site which spent part of late November under water. If a future flood spreads pollution around Cork city, who will pay for the clean-up? If the recent flooding shows anything, it is that the cost of bad planning is borne by ordinary people, while there is no recourse against project promoters and administrators who facilitate ill-considered proposals. – Yours, etc,