Sir, – Stephen Wall (Letters, November 20th) misinterprets the main theme of my letter of November 20th referring to Ireland’s contribution to global warming.
Far from saying that we should forgo efforts to limit our emissions, the core message was that we should accept the advice of the foremost authority on climate matters, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which clearly states that countries should adopt policies commensurate with their responsibility for global warming.
Ireland, driven by political expediency and grandstanding at the EU and the UN, has decided to adopt the most ambitious climate policies in the world while inevitably facing abject and costly failure, as stated recently by such august bodies as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Climate Change Advisory Committee, among others.
Mr Wall also refers to the oft-quoted misrepresentation that Irish emissions per capita are second highest in the EU and 27th in the world. This conclusion is explained away by a quirk of numbers referring mainly to the agriculture sector, our biggest emitter: Ireland has 7.4 million cattle and a small population of just over five million people, distorting our per capita numbers. The UK on the other hand has nearly 10 million cattle but a population of 68 million, while France has 17 million with a population also of 68 million, substantially minimising their per capita numbers.
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The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has recently advised that countries should focus on adaptation against the increasingly potent storms and rising sea levels to come.
The people of Midleton, Rosslare, Cork and Dublin and elsewhere will be justifiably outraged if their homes and businesses are ravaged by floods again and again while the Coalition continues with its grandiose but unachievable climate policies. – Yours, etc,
JOHN LEAHY,
Cork.