Fine Gael to put locals at centre of green policies

LOCAL authorities would be compelled to weed out the greenhouse gas culprits in their area under a Fine Gael government.

The party would make all urban and county councils responsible for conducting inventories of carbon emissions in their area and then produce a plan of action in consultation with local businesses to bring the emissions down.

“A brand new approach is needed with aggressive policies that focus on reaching local targets to reduce our overall emissions, ” said environment spokesman, Fergus O’Dowd. “We will put in place a comprehensive strategy that will place local communities at the centre of all green policies.”

He said all new homes would be expected to use some form of renewable energy and local authorities would have to adopt a green policy when buying and sourcing goods and services.

Deputy O’Dowd said Ireland’s record on greenhouse gas emissions under the Fianna Fáil-PD government was appalling. “We missed all our Kyoto targets. In fact, Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions are twice our overall target. Ireland is ranked 22 out of 27 EU countries when it comes to wind, wave and biomass energy generation despite having the best potential energy generation in these sectors.”

A Fine Gael-led government would ensure at least one-third of the country’s electricity needs were generated from renewable resources, he said.

Labour also criticised the Government’s record on carbon emissions and said the strategy of buying emission allowances from other less industrialised countries was irresponsible. “It is Government strategy to maximise carbon purchase in order to minimise carbon reduction,” said the party’s environment spokesman, Eamon Gilmore. “The ‘pollute now, pay later’ approach of the Government is environmentally irresponsible and economically unsustainable.”

The Green Party’s Ciaran Cuffe said the emissions trading policy pursued by the Government meant it was trying to buy out its way out of its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol using €270 million in taxpayers’ money.

He called instead for clean energy and transport initiatives, including replicating the Luas in towns and cities outside Dublin, and introducing smart electricity metering that would allow householders to sell surplus power from solar panels and wind turbines back to the national electricity grid.

Campaign group, Grian, the Greenhouse Ireland Action Network, also criticised the Government for failing to carry out an economic analysis of the impacts of climate change and the resources needed to tackle it that would help devise a structured response to the problem.

“Responding to these challenges requires a thorough understanding of the economic implications,” said Grian co-ordinator, Pat Finnegan.

“Many European countries have already produced, costed and planned adaptation strategies or else have them under preparation. There is no indication from the Government that we have one coming here any time in the near future.”