Six-point plan to break oil habit 2005-08-19

1. Switch the transport budget

79 per cent of oil used in transport goes into private cars and goods vehicles and only 3 per cent into public transport. (Air travel uses the remaining 18 per cent).

At the moment there is a massive imbalance in our transport budget in favour of road building. This FF-PD Government invests four times as much of our capital spend on roads than on public transport. This should be reversed to provide Irish people with a proper public transport alternative.

2. Promote bio fuels

Our duty exemption for biofuels is still limited to a small handful of projects. We should remove any limit on the volume of such duty free production on the basis that it is better to spend our fuel budget in Carlow rather than Kuwait.

3. Run buses on biogas

Sewage, industrial and agricultural waste can be processed in anaerobic digesters to create a gas by-product which could be used to fuel local bus services.

4. Clean green heating

Oil use accounts for 37 per cent of the energy we use in our homes. The use of oil-fired central heating has almost trebled in the last 15 years. We should be introducing capital grants for solar, geothermal and woodchip heating systems which provide the same heat without any carbon emissions.

5. Go organic

It takes a lot of oil to put food on our table, both to transport it to us and in the fertilisers and pesticides used in its production. Buying from local organic suppliers cuts out all that oil use and brings back biodiversity to our land.

6. Introduce a carbon tax

It makes sense to give the market a consistent long-term signal to move away from oil use. Using the revenue from a carbon tax to lower labour taxes and fund cleaner green technologies would give a boost to our economy.

Green Party

More: www.greens.ie