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MINISTER RICHARD BRUTON is to seek Cabinet approval for an all-government plan to respond to climate change, with Ireland already far behind on its commitments to tackle the problem.
Admitting that the country is “far off course” and “way off target”, the climate action minister said a “huge step up” from government is required if Ireland is to play its part in cutting emissions.
Currently, Ireland is on track to miss its 2020, 2030 and 2050 targets on its climate change targets and, in a scathing annual report from State watchdog – Climate Change Advisory Council – we are now in an “even worse position” than last year as greenhouse gas emissions increased again.
In this context, Minister Bruton told reporters at the Fine Gael Ard Fheis that the government must take action now and claimed that Ireland’s inability to meet its targets has happened alongside the improvement in the economy.
“What happened was simply the collapse of employment and the collapse of economic activity meant we were on target,” he said. “What has become clear since recovery has taken hold is that the trajectory we’re on is not one where we’ll meet our climate targets.
If we fail to adapt now, we will see a widening gap.
He will go to Cabinet on Tuesday to seek approval for an all-government plan to be drawn up in the coming months.
“We are going to hit the ground running and seek to develop the policy responses that are needed,” he said. Fine Gael is seeking a cross-party consensus on the plans.
The minister said that everyone will need to be conscious of what they’re doing to influence their own emissions – in terms of the way they heat their home, or what mode of transport they use.
He said: “Let’s be honest. This can’t be solved by government alone. A lot of it will be behavioural change. Buying into different lifestyles. A much deeper change.”
Bruton wants to soon set out a new trajectory for the action that will be taken – which may include provisions such as carbon tax hikes and regulations on businesses who fail on their energy efficiency rates.
The Dublin Bay North TD said that he’d taken action of his own in a conscious attempt to reduce emissions.
“I have recently purchased an electric car – a plug-in hybrid. In everything we do, we have to be conscious of carbon,” he said.
With reporting from Christina Finn
Wow, he bought an electric car and he’s going to nail us with tax hikes. That’s “action” for sure.
@niall: this is not something to be bloody childish about. Cop onto yourself, the literal fate of the planet is on the line.
@niall:
I have purchased a solar powered watch.
About as helpful to saving the planet as “renewables”.
Check out how successful energiewende has been in Germany.
@Paddington C.: tell that to the Indians and Chinese
@Martin Lintzgy: Ireland need to get moving on offshore wind
Scottish Wind Delivers Equivalent Of 98% Of Country’s October Electricity Demand https://cleantechnica.com/2018/11/13/scottish-wind-delivers-equivalent-of-98-of-countrys-october-electricity-demand/
@Quentin Moriarty: that’s pathetic, do your part.
@niall: As easy as it is to be cynical, politicians should all be driving EVs to lead by example so fair play to him.
That said two weeks ago the same government started talking about abolishing free charging points for electric cars. God forbid we want to keep promoting Electric Vehicles.
@Daniel Murray: I don’t see why the charge points should be free? They were initially rolled out as part of a pilot scheme to encourage EV adoption but now what is needed is a commercially viable system.
A fair price per kWh would allow a proper national system to be rolled out with multiple chargers at every station and that the chargers would actually be working.
@Paddington C.: And Ieland will save it
@Paddington C.: And you think an ev is the way to go about it? Unbelievable. Do some research will you and stop embarrassing yourself
@Geraldine Fenton: no, everybody doing their part will but that includes Ireland.
@niall: All those post you’ve been looking at saying that they result in higher emissions have all been proved wrong. firstly the main premise is that they have up to 50% more emissions to manufacture. This based purely on a estimate that it takes one tonne of CO2 per thousand dollars that the car costs. Electric cars are 50% more expensive to manufacture because of the shortage and therefore expense of cobalt but the reality is their manufacturing emissions are about the same.
Also even though some of the electricity will be generated using fossil fuels it is a far more efficient use that a combustion engine meaning a greater mileage per tonne of CO2 produced.
Let’s all get round the table and …… call in the taxman.
@Greg Blake: if you look at all of the people on here commenting that we should blame the Chinese as opposed to taking personal responsibility, maybe the taxman has to be called?
@Paddington C.: Charging us more taxes to heat our homes when there is no alternative but gas and electricity, those who switched to wood burning stoves are now told these fires are causing air pollution,get real, we are sitting ducks. It was government policy to promote diesel cars, now they are a pariah and people are being taxed more for going with the advice, easy for Richard to buy the new motor, others struggle just to get by.
@Honeybee: wait, you have a wood burning stove?? Everybody was wrong about diesel, unfortunately. But it wasn’t a lie, the information just wasn’t available. Why not just try to be mature and do the best you can with the information available?
@Paddington C.: Isn’t that the thing Paddington, people acted on the available advice, now they are paying the penalty,nothing to do with maturity, sounds like you have your paw in the honey jar again , is there more to you than marmalade and a duffle coat?
@Honeybee: yeah, but unfortunately it’s no longer the best advice. It was right insofar as Diesel has fewer emissions. But it’s killing people. That information wasn’t available before. It is now.
@Honeybee: just do your part with the information you have and stop blaming external forces. An increased sense of personal responsibility is what will make the difference.
@Paddington C.: Older diesels were doing that, catch up, new diesels are very low on box, so low that the exhaust have no soot on them with euro emissions 6 engines, euro 7 emissions will be cleaner than full petrol and hybrids and will be a game changer, its absolute nuts of the like of Toyota to be promoting hybrids with 1.8 to 2.5 litre petrol engine’s which are high in co2 that’s actually bad for the atmosphere. A poor replacement for the diesels they couldn’t improve on emissions wise.
@Paddington C.: Personal responsibility was never Paddingtons forte,I was raised whatever doesn’t kill you will make you stronger,………..except bears, bears will kill you.
@Honeybee: bears and anthropogenic global warming.
@Honeybee: you mean the state purchased it
Minister spoofer buys a hybrid. Well done you! Didn’t want to go full electric and go carbon free? Like his stint in education, he’ll be completely unoriginal and copy something from Scandinavia or some place else that turns out wasn’t all that great and could’ve been done better. That and throwing a load of tax at the problem. I read that they were thinking of putting a huge tax on people who commute. The longer the commute the higher the tax. This is the type of pea brain politics this man and his party prescribe to. Screw the working Joe who cant afford to live within the urban area where they work because of government policy
@Bruce van der Gutschmitzer: To be fair a plug in Hybrid runs on just electric most of the time, The petrol engine is there for long journeys. If your job or life in general involves a lot of long journeys a pure electric is not going to work for you. At least not yet. What he’s driving now is a lot better than the S class merc he was swanning around in before.
@Rob Cahill: minister for swanning around alright. Had a prius and it worked off both just about equally depending on the journey. If you’d to put the foot down at all, the petrol would kick in but was glorious to watch the electric motor charge going downhill. It’s the simple things in life. Not sure what new model hybrids are like now but I imagine a lot more efficient. Can’t say the same for Bruton give how wasteful he’s been implementing the new junior cert and project Maths. It was found to be a failure in Scandinavia and he ploughed on because the department had invested heavily and it’d make him look bad scrapping it. Now he’s in Comm the other guy will get the flack. Eejit!
@Rob Cahill: The guy who installed the charge point in my home was came out from Mayo in a Zoe, he’s been doing them all round the country and he hasn’t had any problems with making journeys. you can make it work if you just plan ahead a bit.
@Rob Cahill: Think your missing Bruce’s point. The boneheads in goverment will have no original ideas as to how to resolve the issue. Even when they copy some other country’s formula they still can’t get it right. They only care about money. Carry on doing whatever you want but we want our cut. Few eco warriors on here spouting on about doing our bit, yeah, yeah, who’s paying.
Tax hikes mentioned but nothing about the giant cow in the room, farming.
@TheHeathen: breaking news, people need food
@Ole dan tucker: people do need food, but they don’t need as much beef and dairy as they currently consume. Cutting down in your intake of those things makes a huge difference.
@Paddington C.: In 2015,Ireland exported beef to 63 countries,we are now going to export beef to China by next summer,
After 18 years, China has opened its markets to Irish beef – TheJournal.ie
http://www.thejournal.ie/china-irish-beef-imports-3959874-Apr2018/
so it makes little difference if we cut down our intake, we are supplying a global market ,so guess what, more cows in the fields.
@Honeybee: and far better for the planet to produce it here from grass than massive grain based systems elsewhere
@Honeybee: I am going to put this in caps so you don’t miss it: *ALL YOU CAN DO IS YOUR PART*. The government should look at the industry as a whole, and we should pressure them to do so. But saying you’re not going to do your part because China isn’t doing its part is a moral argument from Junior Infants. Cop onto yourself.
@Honeybee: Agriculture is responsible for about 1/3rd of Ireland’s GHG emissions, in the form of methane and Nitrogen Oxides (NOx).
Here’s Ireland’s GHG agriculture emission projections for 2020 and 2030:
Dairy Herd: +10%, +22%
Beef Herd: +1.2%, -2.1%
Sheep: -12%, -25%
Pig: +11%, +26.3%
Poultry: +11%, +25%
The biggest increase will be Dairy, Pig and Poultry, due to the emission of methane from animal waste, methane from fermentation in cow’s stomachs and the use of fertiliser on Dairy farms (Nitrogen fertiliser releases potent green houses gasses if not used properly). GHGs from the beef herd is projected to decrease.
It is possible to greatly reduce methane emissions from fermentation in cows stomachs, as the bacteria involved are not actually needed for digestion. There are several methods that greatly reduce methane emissions from Cattle, enzyme inhibitors that block the bacteria from producing methane or food additives e.g. seaweed. Adding seaweed to Cow’s diet reduced methane production by 99%.
It may also be possible to reduce GHG emissions from fertiliser use by moving farms to better soil conditions and applying fertiliser when the weather conditions suitable. Many of these changes will likely increase yields and lower costs, as fertiliser turning into GHG or flowing into rivers does not help grow grass. This is a positive incentive for change.
See slide 12:
Animal.agriculture is the leading cause of global pollution but we don’t hear anyone addressing this issue. All single use plastics should be banned now and introduce a money back scheme on recyclables that are collected and brought to a recycling depot , like other countries have done.
@Stoneybroke: you are factually incorrect, the burning of fossil fuels is the leading cause of pollution.
@Adrian™:
I think in the round it’s fair to say both are really bad, and pollution is multiple in sources.
Methane from cows – there are around 1.7 billion cows in the world – are responsible for more greenhouse gases than all the tranportation in the world combined. But then there are coal-fired power stations, natural gas extraction, peat burning, oil heating. Animal agriculture, on the other hand, also involves massive deforestation and its consequences such as species extinction, tillage destruction, phospates, pesticides, fungicides and herbicides.
We’re being sold, and buying into, a nonsense fantasy world of infinite resources and perpetual growth in population and consumption, and we’re heading in the wrong direction on all counts.
The natual world cannot cope and is breaking down yet we persist.
There’ll be hell to pay.
@Stoneybroke: the leading cause is people, … too many consuming too much. People row about farming methods and consumption methods, but we are sitting at the top, sucking from of a single energy conversion system. Population needs trump all other environmental debates.
@Stoneybroke: “Animal.agriculture is the leading cause of global pollution”
No, Agriculture accounted for 10-12% of Global Greenhouse Gas emissions in 2005, a figure that slightly increased since then.
“Agriculture accounted for an estimated emission of 5.1 to 6.1GtCO2-eq/yr in 2005 (10-12% of total global anthropogenicemissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs)).”
@Adrian™: you are nitpicking and is that the only contribution you have ?
@David Jordan: what about all the deafforestation to clear land to grow crops to feed cattle for the meat industry ? The water pollution associated with the meat industry ? You are living in cloud cuckoo land if you honestly think that the animal agriculture industry is not one of the leading causes of global pollution.
Just wondering is this the minster that signed off on all those schools with defects….
And housing and healthcare.
Agriculture is the third largest contributor to global emissions by sector, with methane accounting for just under half of total agricultural emissions, nitrous oxide for 36 percent, and carbon dioxide for some 14 percent.Bet there won’t be a tax on cows and sheep
@Seamus Scott: Very true. Yet we tell kids in school to drink their milk (despite milk being debunked as essential after infancy in the first world) and that eating steak, mince and other cow products is part of a healthy lifestyle.
I love my spaghetti bolognese but when I see the figures I feel like maybe I should be a climate based vegetarian.
Can I recall say to the next generation that I helped wreck to world because I wouldn’t change from beef to chicken?
@Daniel Murray: You can change from beef to chicken if you wish Daniel,won’t make a blind bit of difference, we are upping the national herd to supply the chinese market from next summer, you do know we are the fifth largest beef exporter in the world and we are pushing for more markets.
@Daniel Murray: very well said. I am not a vegetarian, but I have dramatically reduced my intake of meat for environmental (as well as animal welfare) reasons and it has not reduced the quality of my meals at all. Vegetarian lasagna is probably nicer than beef based lasagna, there are plenty of really tasty alternatives to beef based bolognese, too.
@Honeybee: YOU do YOUR part x
@Seamus Scott: “Bet there won’t be a tax on cows and sheep”
The 2016 Paris Agreement obligates countries to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from Agriculture. Ireland better start doing something as Irish agriculture already emits about 1/3rd of our GHGs. It’s a very serious issue, and projections predict large increases emissions from the Irish Dairy, Pig and Poultry sectors. The only sector so far exempt, as far as I know, is transport – cars, buses, trains, trucks, ships, planes etc.
“The Paris Agreement opens the door for more adaptation and mitigation in the agriculture sector. Countries must take urgent action to reduce emissions from the agriculture sector in order to limit global warming below 2 degrees C. Funding and political will are needed to support developing countries to implement their plans to combat and adapt to climate change in the agriculture sector. The global agriculture community, including CGIAR, must step up and engage in key UNFCCC processes between now and 2020 to drive action and innovation on issues related to agriculture”
Agriculture and transport were 72.5% of our emissions in 2015. Yet we are still taught in school to worry about waste which was 1.6%.
Wonder how many politicians and people are even aware of those figures.
@Daniel Murray: You a little off there – Agriculture emitted 33.1% and transport emitted 19.8% of our GHGs in 2015, so they emitted a total of 52.9% of our GHG emissions.
The energy sector produced 19.7% of our GHGs, and residential and industry produced 10.1% and 7.6% respectively.
Transport is exempt from GHG reduction efforts, however, they started to pay attention to agriculture following the 2016 Paris Agreement. It’s a difficult problem, as we have to greatly increase food production for several billion more people that will need feeding while reducing emissions agriculture.
“The Paris Agreement opens the door for more adaptation and mitigation in the agriculture sector. Countries must take urgent action to reduce emissions from the agriculture sector in order to limit global warming below 2 degrees C. Funding and political will are needed to support developing countries to implement their plans to combat and adapt to climate change in the agriculture sector. The global agriculture community, including CGIAR, must step up and engage in key UNFCCC processes between now and 2020 to drive action and innovation on issues related to agriculture”
http://www.epa.ie/pubs/reports/air/airemissions/ghgemissions/GHG%201990-2015%20April%202017.pdf
Hypocrite with taxpayer funded electrical toy. Does the electricity grow on trees.
Tell China, India, Russia and self serving twits at UN Global warming is a con.
@Joe Byrne: Joe, you sound like a man we should all listen to. Full of well thought out ideas backed up by facts and reason.
This an excuse to levy BS Carbon taxes ?
The Earths temperature has always flucuated, it has to do with the change in Solar activity.Records show the Earth warming from 1880 to 1940 and then from 1950 to 1970 cooling, so much so we were told we where entering a time of deep cold climate. CO2 is not the cause of global warming its a by product. We have no way of controling the climate but are constantly told its our fault “sure look at the ice melting in the Artic” what they fail to mention is that it has always increased and decreased throught the centuries.CO2 Climate change is a theory and a dangerous one for third world countries denied the right to develop as we have but forced to use expensive and inefficent alternative energy sources.
@Graham Light: 97% of the worlds climate scientists agree that climate change is anthropogenic. Why should we listen to you?
@Paddington C.: “97% of the worlds climate scientists agree” is a fantastic tagline however in reality is that true?. Climate change has become a billion dollar industry and to question the narrative has become a taboo. I am not sure which scientific journals you have read or if you have an understanding of solar activity on our climate but Nasa has some fantastic data available online.
@Graham Light: people like you genuinely terrify me.
@Paddington C.: Im sorry if people like me terrify you that certainly was never my intention. However there is very strong scientific evidence to support the Solar activity theory and it really shouldnt be ignored to push an alternative Carbon theory, although it would be very hard to tax the Sun.
@Graham Light: are you Liam Doyle? I haven’t seen him in a while. His race science probably finally got him banned.
@Paddington C.: I dont know who Liam Doyle is and I would not be able to comment on his research into Race Science without seeing his evidence first. Is it to do with climate and the effects on pigmentation of skin colour?
@Graham Light: listen, non-human causes of global warming certainly exist, solar activity certainly plays a part, volcanoes play a role. But anthropogenic climate change is a fact, it’s not a theory. Eradication of ecosystems and emission of greenhouse gasses from farming, transport, etc., play the most significant role and to deny that is to bury your head in the sand while the world collapses around you.
@Paddington C.: You are correct in that volcanoes play a more significent role then previously believed ,however you are wrong to suggest humans are the number 1 as you excluded the oceans. We will have to agree to disagree on this subject.
@Graham Light: that’s fine by me, Liam. You’ve led me down more than enough rabbit holes in your previous incarnation.
Here’s an idea. Let’s double the national herd and tell everyone “we’re a special case and climate change shouldn’t really apply to us”.
And meanwhile Winston Churchtown lets Dublin Bus buy a new fleet of diesel buses. Joined up thinking……….
@Trapp: They are euro 6 emission buses end the dramatics about diesels engines, that’s old news.
Agriculture is the third largest contributor to global emissions by sector,Bet there won’t be a tax on cows and sheep
@Seamus Scott: That’s true globally, but the agriculture sector is Ireland’s biggest emitter of Greenhouse gases, it accounted for 33.1% of Ireland’s GHG emissions in 2015 which is massive and something we haven’t started to tackle.
That said, the 2016 Paris Agreement started the process of mitigating GHG emissions from agriculture. In other words, we have promised to think about it.
However, reductions are possible, aside from degreasing meat and milk consumption. For example, the bacterial living in cattle’s stomachs is not actually necessary for digestion, it is therefore possible to greatly reduce methane emissions using enzyme inhibitors and/or food additives that inhibit bacteria growth, some interventions also increase weight gain (so there’s an incentive there).
It’s a difficult problem however, as we need to produce more food for the billions of more mouths needing feeding while decreasing emissions, not easy to do both.
What a great show of leader ship, let’s hope he doesn’t have to travel far, I’m ready now and happy to be taxed to Fu@k, as one wise politician said before if you can afford a pint you can afford to pay more tax.
Throw money at the problem and it will go away.
This is totally Richard Bruton
https://youtu.be/WFn1WEaYY3A
@David Byrne: haaaa classss,
Slap a few taxes on here and there. That’ll sort it.
This is rich coming from a minister who is in favour of building the massive sewage plant in Clonshsugh which will not only spew out tons of toxic fumes into the atmosphere but also contaminate the waters and beaches along the eastern seaboard.
@Larry Byrne: Eh sewage plants don’t make sewage…your arse does.
@Larry Byrne: what should we do with the raw sewage and where do you think it goes? Bloody hell…
This problem needs a multi layered approach with people looking at their own behaviour and taking responsibility for their own decisions. For example, so much time is spent sitting in stationary cars and traffic jams. I think it would save everyone a lot of time, decrease the level of pollution in our cities and increase our health if we could put in place a system so that we got out of our private cars and took bicycles and public transport into the centre of our cities. Public transport should be free.
Wave and wind power need to be used. Electric cars are a joke because currently we are generating the electricity for them from fossil fuels. Denmark is 75% renewable; we haven’t invested in renewables because too many people are getting rich off the back of fossil fuels here.
@Kevin Slater: yeah, we need more renewable sources. However, electric cars based in a 100% fossil fuel energy grid are still more energy efficient than their petrol equivalent. And Ireland actually does generate some (but not enough) renewable energy. So it’s still better to drive electric, even if it were better again if the grid qas greener.
@Kevin Slater: Even in states where power generation’s 90%+ coal, emissions are lower.
https://afdc.energy.gov/vehicles/electric_emissions.html
Power generation’s not a particularly compelling reason to not buy one given generation sources can be changed
About time …all ministers should be driveing electric cars ….so should everybody
@Mari: Once the price comes down maybe.
@Rob Cahill: i agree the goverment need to provide incentive fr people Rob
Enough with this narcissistic ideological claptrap about ‘cutting emissions to save the planet’! Man-made influence on climate change is insignificant. The only area govt should be focusing on is infrastructural and environmental planning to mitigate and manage the effects of increasing climate extremes. Which, in Ireland’s case, largely translates to increased risk of flooding and prolonged cold.
@Niall Bradley: It’s crazy that on an immature, emotional level you want to believe that so much that you actually do.
I remember denis naughten got an e-car for a few days too when he was in that job.
Government has ZERO intention of meeting any emissions targets.
If Minister Bruton showed some actual commitment and purchased a full BEV he would see the shambles that is our EV charging infrastructure experiment.
Meanwhile Dept. of Finance is reluctant to support EVs as it wants every last cent from petrol & diesel taxes whilst not realising a huge proportion of the money raised by said fuel taxes goes into treating respiratory & immune system illnesses caused by burning same fuels.
Studies in Norway (population not far off Ireland) a have shown that the cost to their health system of burning petrol & diesel is 47 billion Krone which is close to €5 billion euro.
Dept. of Finance need to look at the other side of the income and expenditure equation for burning hydrocarbons.
The world has too many people. The planet cannot be saved without controlling the number of people..
The planet is dying and people in denial about what needs to be done to avert disaster. Our kids will compare us to the ‘flat earth’ idiots who cost our world dearly.
Away off target is every part Government
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