Madam, – Tony Allwright (Opinion, February 19th) is right in pointing out that Ireland, along with other nations, has so far failed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with our commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. However, the suggestion that it is agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol, rather than our failure to implement them, that threaten “mass impoverishment” is misplaced.
The threat of climate change, in particular for the poorest countries, is real and urgent, exacerbating existing problems such as access to water and food and vulnerability to disasters. Responding to climate change will be expensive, but failure to respond will be even more so.
The Stern report commissioned by the UK government shows that while 2 per cent of global GDP will be needed to cope with climate change now, it will be up to 10 times more expensive to deal with the consequences of inaction.
Mr Allwright is also right to suggest that spending $200 billion on clean water and sanitation would be money well spent, but he fails to acknowledge that without urgent action to tackle climate change, these benefits will be completely undermined by the impacts of reduced and more erratic rainfall, melting glaciers and increases in vector-borne disease.
Ireland and other rich nations need to start taking real action to reduce emissions rather than looking for excuses to continue with business as usual. – Yours, etc,