Robinson predicts US under Obama could lead the green agenda

THE United States under Barack Obama could leave Europe far behind with its green agenda, creating jobs and wealth, former Irish president Mary Robinson said during the week.

Obama put the “planet in peril” as his No 2 concern when he summed up his challenges after his election, and is sending a parallel team to the UN climate change talks in Poland next month.

The president-elect, also facing an economic and jobs crisis, does not see the issue in terms of the green economy versus the growing economy, as the oil and some other industries insist.

Provided he can find the funds once he takes up office, a $100 billion (about €780,000) investment over two years would create two million new jobs.

Obama’s team expects 17 good paying jobs, mainly in constructing and manufacturing, for every $1 million invested in the green economy, compared with 4.5 for a similar investment in oil.

Half the money would be spent on tax credits to help commercial and domestic property owners to invest in renewable energy and insulation. Studies say $2,500 would reduce household energy bills by $900 a year.

The remaining bulk would go to fitting out public buildings, investment in renewable energy systems and increasing transport by rail rather than road.

Apart from creating jobs that cannot be exported, the green economy has another big advantage — reducing the outflow of money in paying for oil imports.

Ireland, possibly more than any other country in the EU, should be aware of the need to push the green agenda hard and fast and move to be a low carbon economy.

We are more dependent on oil imports than any other EU country and at 200,000 barrels a day we use more oil per person than almost all the other 27 EU member states because so much of our electricity generation depends on oil but, more shockingly, because we use 50% more fuel per person on transport than the EU average.

But if the country is oil poor, than it is rich in wind and ocean and this is something companies like Eirgrid recognise. Their planned interconnectors with the UK and possibly directly to France recognise that in fact Ireland could become a net exporter of such energy.

But Ireland is coming from behind and appears to be very slow to learn the lessons from fellow EU members. Consider Denmark, which gets 20% of its energy from wind power and is the world’s biggest producer of wind turbines

Germany has almost 90% of the PV photovoltaics for solar power in the EU thanks to agreeing to pay people a guaranteed price for the energy they create.

It also manufactures a third of the world’s solar equipment and 30% of its wind turbines.

Currently, the EU leads the world in machinery manufacturing – putting it ahead of the US in its potential to create jobs in the green area. It has also provided the global leadership in putting in place a method of persuading governments and industry to reduce their CO2 emissions.

But countries squabbling over the cost could lose sight of the real cost. As Mrs Robinson warned, “you cannot bail out the planet”.

Meanwhile, last week UN experts said the recent rise in CO2 emissions has been worse than their worst case scenario on which they based their case for a 20 to 30% cut in emissions.