Is it only the EU that is taking greenhouse gas reduction seriously?
One of the most radical ideas at the ICMSA climate think-tank came from UCD Professor of Economics Colm McCarthy. He suggested that the current system, of policing and encouraging reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, is not working, and is being taken seriously only by the EU.
The USA, Canada and Australia, all significant emitters, have opted out. This system is based on reducing greenhouse gas production within national boundaries. The planet has just one atmosphere. Each tonne of carbon has a similar damaging effect, regardless of the country of origin.
A rational system of climate policy, McCarthy says, should involve a carbon tax, levied on consumers, not producers. There is at present no tax, either at producer or consumer level, on aviation fuel, but this is likely to change soon.
He had detected within the EU a growing support for a consumer-based tax on aviation fuel. If such a proposal was agreed, and successful, there could be wider support for consumer-based carbon taxes in other areas. (It might take a long time, held up not least by UN and Government bureaucracy).
Consumer-based carbon taxes would have significant implications for Irish agriculture. Only in Ireland and New Zealand do methane emissions from belching cattle become a matter of public climate policy, because of the relative importance of agriculture.
Discussions on climate change and carbon emissions in countries other than Ireland and New Zealand do not much involve the farming sector. In both countries, the dairy sector has a significant comparative advantage, the basis for its economic success.
But the national targets in place for reduced carbon emissions threaten the viability of these successful industries. Farmers say if the Irish beef and dairy sectors suffer, their output will be replaced by output from other countries which causes higher carbon emission levels. The result of that would be increased rather than reduced emissions.
