THE YAWNING gap between what the Government says and what it does to confront the challenge of climate change has been highlighted this week in a report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Although politically committed to reducing our prodigious emissions of greenhouse gases by 3 per cent per annum between now and 2012, the Government is failing to make any real progress in achieving this goal.
As the EPA report clearly shows, these climate-damaging emissions are still on an upward trajectory. Unless Ministers agree to take additional measures, it is obvious that we will fail to meet our obligations under the Kyoto Protocol and, in the longer term, we will have no chance of complying with the indicative EU target of reducing emissions by at least 20 per cent by 2020.
Minister for the Environment and Green Party leader John Gormley has termed the EPA's projections as a "wake-up call to all of us". As he said, the growth in emissions is widening the gap to meeting our Kyoto target and "building up a far greater and more costly problem for Ireland in the longer term". This wake-up call must be heeded by other Government Ministers as well as by the social partners and society as a whole. Because it is abundantly clear that everyone will have to play their part if Ireland is to make the transition to a less carbon-intensive economy. And this paradigm shift in our thought and actions will not be painless.
Some indication of the type of measures that will need to be taken are outlined in a very valuable contribution by the Institute for International and European Affairs (IIEA), reported yesterday. Annual levies on workplace parking and London-style congestion charging are among the recommendations it makes to deal with soaring emissions from the transport sector, which are up by at least 160 per cent since 1990 - mainly due to the spectacular growth in car ownership and use during the boom. The onset of recession may have an impact in tempering this unsustainable trajectory, but it may also have the effect of postponing more radical action - for example, the imposition of a revenue-neutral carbon tax at a time when the Government is grappling with the downturn in exchequer returns, rising unemployment and a marked decline in consumer confidence.
However, despite a renewed outbreak of political point-scoring as soon as the Dáil resumed this week after its long summer recess, what's needed is a political consensus among all parties if Ireland is to deal with the enormous challenge presented by climate change.