Republic’s greenhouse gas emissions ‘insignificant’

IRELAND’S greenhouse gas emissions are “insignificant” and government efforts to combat the problem will not matter on a global scale, a leading climate change expert has said.

Professor Richard Tol of the Economic and Social Research Institute said the only reason Ireland should tackle emissions was because of the “moral and legal obligation” to do so.

He made the remarks at a recent meeting of the joint Oireachtas committee on climate change.

“Ireland’s emissions of greenhouse gases are insignificant,” said Prof Tol. “It is a global problem and... whatever Ireland does for its emissions does not matter. Cutting emissions would only work for moral leadership.”

He said Irish emissions amounted to about just 1% of global emissions.

“So if we reduce our emissions by 1%, we have not contributed anything to solving the global problem.”

However, he added: “This is a global problem, so everybody should help solve it and, in that sense, Ireland is not insignificant.”

He said a carbon tax would be the cheapest way of tackling emissions in Ireland, and there were good reasons for its introduction.

The Green party favours the introduction of such a levy, and won a commitment in the Programme for Government from Fianna Fáil that a carbon tax would be introduced over the lifetime of the administration.

But Prof Tol cautioned that a carbon tax wouldn’t entirely solve the problem here and would do little to reduce global emissions.

“Whatever we in this country do will not solve the problem unless, because of whatever carbon tax we decide to install, some clever Irish bloke or girl invents a new wonder fuel that is carbon neutral, abundant, cheap and so on. The real solution lies in technological progress.

“That said... It would be betting on the wrong horse to suggest that Ireland will solve this problem for the rest of the world. In that sense, we are insignificant although we have a moral and legal obligation to do something about it.”