Government ignoring threat of climate change

Friends of the Earth today criticised the government for inaction in the face of the growing threat of climate change.

"The year since the Kyoto Protocol came into effect has seen no progress in Ireland on tackling climate change. The increase in Ireland's greenhouse gas pollution is running at twice the level allowed under Kyoto while government plans are running on empty", said Friends of the Earth Director, Oisin Coghlan.

The Government's own consultants are predicting that without new policies Ireland's carbon emissions will continue to rise in the years ahead. Yet a review of the existing climate strategy begun in 2002 has yet to produce so much as a consultation document.

"Having gutted the existing climate strategy by abandoning the carbon tax and reversing the decision to switch Moneypoint away from coal, the government has failed to put any new policies in place. All we saw in the last year was the opening of two new peat-fired power stations. Peat is the most climate-changing of all fossil fuels", Mr Coghlan continued.

Progress on renewbale energy is paltry. This government's own green paper on sustainable energy promised that 12% of electricity needs would be meet from renewable sources by 2005. In fact figures recently published by Sustainable Energy Ireland show that we had only reached 5.2% by 2004.

"Climate and energy are going to dominate the agenda in the years ahead in the way unemployment and emigration did in years gone by. We can't simply cross our fingers and hope this problem will go away or that the EU will make us do the right thing we in end. A last minute fix to the looming climate and energy crisis is simply not possible. We must plan and act now. We tackled our economic underdevelopment with an innovative mixture of social partnership, investment in education and government incentives to promote new business. Now we need a new policy shift and the same social and political commitment to deal with the threat posed by climate change and oil peak," said Mr Coghlan.

There are some signs of a political awakening. 77 TDs from across all the political parties have now signed the Friends of the Earth Climate Pledge which commits them to doing all they can to ensuring Ireland does its fair share to tackle climate change. Signatories include Sean Haughey, chair of the Oireachtas Enviornment Committee and 10 other Fianna Fail TDs, 3 PD backbenchers and the envionment spokespeople of all the opposition parties.