Climate crisis is closer than anticipated - Budgets as a lever for change

Today’s budget will, like all budgets, be used to try to meet social and political needs. Budgets can be a lever to discourage destructive behaviour, too. The relentless, dissuasive increases in tobacco taxes are rooted in tax-to-do-good principle. So, too, was the realignment of road taxes to promote environmentally friendly cars — if that is not an oxymoron.

In August, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar indicated an increase in carbon taxes. Leinster House scuttlebutt — and that’s all it is until this afternoon — has suggested an increase of €10 a tonne, increasing the levy, unchanged since May 2014, to €30 a tonne. This will make petrol, diesel, heating fuel, and solid fuel more expensive.