The great climate change challenge

Climate change is the biggest challenge facing our society today. Ireland can and should lead the way in tackling this problem head-on, The way to achieve the dramatic greenhouse gas reductions necessary to avoid the serious repercussions of climate change is to implement far-reaching, radical solutions. There is no reason for us to hang back and follow whatever international response may emerge. We must use our initiative and take action now.

 

All future Irish governments will have to address this problem. It is therefore essential that we have all-party consensus on the issue. With this in mind, the Green party put the Climate Change Targets Bill 2005 before the Dáil on 1 December. The bill sought to put the national climate change strategy above the short-term electoral cycle. It aimed to safeguard the fulfillment of Ireland's climate change targets and obligations. The bill was a recognition that real and lasting reductions in Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions will require long-term forward planning, and provided for a partnership cross-party approach on long term energy and environment targets. The bill called on the Government to establish the necessary annual pro-rata reductions required to reach the targeted 60-80 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions on a gradual incremental basis by the year 2050.

The bill received support from all the opposition parties, but the Government felt it could not commit, and the Bill was voted down by 60 to 55 votes.

On Monday 5 December, the Green party hosted a civic forum on climate change in the Mansion House. The Forum took place as environment ministers, scientists and government leaders gather for the final days of the United Nations Climate Change Summit in Montreal, Canada. Speakers on the evening included Dr Mary Kelly of the EPA, Dr John Sweeney from NUI Maynooth, Eddie O'Connor from Airtricity and Henk Van Der Kemp from the Planning Institute at DIT. Fine Gael, Labour, Sinn Féin, The Progressive Democrats and Independent TDs were all represented at the Forum. Minister for the Environment Dick Roche turned down our invitation to speak on the night and Fianna Fáil failed to send a representative. The issue of climate is clearly not high on the Minister's agenda.

Ireland's 'National Climate Change Strategy' was published by the Department of the Environment in 2000. This 'strategy' was intended as the blueprint for how Ireland would meet its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. A limited review was carried out in May 2002 and the document is now redundant and must be replaced.

The European Environment Agency published its report 'The European Environment – State and Outlook 2005' earlier this week with damning results for Ireland. We have emerged as one of the worst offenders in terms of our greenhouse emissions, coming an abysmal 28th out of 29 countries. The report also shows that we have made little or no progress in reducing our emissions in recent years. When the Minister for the Environment says that Ireland is going to meet its Kyoto obligations he does not mean that we will actually reduce our emissions but rather that we will buy our way out of the problem. A recent consultants' report commissioned by the Department of the Environment estimated that this buy-out could cost the Irish taxpayer as much as €600 million for the four years of the current agreement. This is simply not good enough.

In Ireland, the kind of projects that will be major factors in reducing our emissions – power generation and transport – involve long-term strategic investment. These kinds of projects are unlikely to be built in the lifetime of any one government and will exist long after the current generation of politicians are dead and gone. For this reason the broadest possible societal and political consensus must underpin the means by which Ireland honours its international obligations to cut its emissions.

If the Government were serious about tackling our greenhouse emissions, it would invest more funds in public transport instead of motorways, improve building regulations, so that homes cost less to heat, and provide greater support for renewable energy, such as wind turbines. It is clear that the current Government's decision to buy its way out of its commitments will not reduce our contribution to global warming and will cost Ireland economically. We must take appropriate action now or pay an extremely heavy price later.

Ciarán Cuffe TD is the Green party spokesperson on the environment