With Ireland now set to overshoot its Kyoto Protocol target to curb greenhouse gas emissions by a very substantial margin, the last thing we need is a strategy based on "business as usual". Yet that is what the Government is offering, to judge by the second National Allocation Plan (NAP-2) for emissions trading in 2008-2012, published yesterday by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Though extremely complex in character, it is evident that established industries - notably in the cement manufacturing sector - are being looked after, though industries and power generators which breach their allocations will face higher penalties of €100 per tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2 ) they emit over the five-year period.
The overall thrust of NAP-2 carries forward the faults inherent in its predecessor and offers no new targets or initiatives. Most regrettably, there is little in the draft document that offers any real encouragement to switch from carbon-intensive activities, apart from a politically correct nod in the direction of renewable energy and combined heat and power plants. This applies to the electricity generating sector but, curiously, the logic behind it - to promote the use of cleaner technologies - has not been extended to the cement sector, where Ecocem, Ireland's only producer of "green cement", is given no credit for its contribution to reducing CO2 emissions by some 300,000 tonnes per annum. This may even put its future in jeopardy.
It also seems extraordinary that nearly 95 per cent of the total allocation of 115 million tonnes of CO2 is being given away free of charge. Surely the time has come to consider auctioning these permits? Alternatively, ministers might revisit their short-sighted decision not to introduce a scheme of carbon taxes, which would be a much fairer way of applying the "polluter pays" principle. Time is running out. The five-year Kyoto commitment period, during which Ireland is expected to cap its greenhouse gas emissions at 13 per cent above their 1990 levels, starts on January 1st, 2008, the date on which NAP-2 will also take effect.
With the most recent figures showing that emissions are 23 per cent above 1990 levels, the need for a revised National Climate Change Strategy could not be more pressing. Minister for the Environment Dick Roche and his Cabinet colleagues should lose no more time dithering. But with a general election due a year from now, it will be interesting and instructive to see whether our political leaders have the gumption to spell out what all of us - not just industry - must do to change our ways.