Irish Examiner View: A new culture on climate change - All too blasé on the crisis of our time
The reaction to Monday’s suggestion from a Dublin City Council official, speaking at a clean air conference, that parents should be prohibited from driving children to school drew predictable reactions.
Most were outraged, others scoffed but some people, if only a minority, recognised how the school run drives traffic congestion — shorthand for commuter torture — and contributes to unhealthy air while diminishing the quality of life for many city residents.
Speaking at the same Climate Brave conference Anne Graham, National Transport Authority CEO, pointed out that transport had the fastest rising level of green house gas emissions and that private cars, our cars, are the biggest offender.
In response, Brendan O’Brien, DCC head of technical services for traffic said that if could he would “make it illegal for anybody to drive their kids to school... That’s the most critical thing we could do because it would then force us... to provide public transport and walking and cycling facilities.”
Even if he was being deliberately provocative, Mr O’Brien raised the fundamental issue — the absence of coordinated commitment to climate measures across all of what we do.
Simple things like the absence of reliable public transport or more complex issues like the shortage of school places all contribute to traffic congestion. That so many roads, and some drivers, make cycling a kamikaze option adds to the challenge.
Footpaths, and not just in cities, can be so poor that walking can be as dangerous as cycling. It should not be too hard to change habits around this, a change that would have as many health benefits as environmental benefits.
It may more difficult to change other habits and ambitions especially those outlined in Food Wise 2025 which suggests agri-food exports could grow to €19bn a year by 2025, a 85% increase from the current three-year average.
How those ambitions might square with climate obligations remains a mystery. The increase in the 6.4m national dairy herd needed to realise those ambitions has, according to the Department of Agriculture, an impact.
That expansion is a likely factor in bovine TB hitting a six-year peak. A total of 4,060 herds were infected last year, the highest figure since 2013. Tens of thousands of dairy bull calves at giveaway prices — as low as €5 — and exported live is another questionable consequence.
Ireland’s bovine TB escalation may not feature in tomorrow’s Common Agricultural Policy (Cap) talks but sustainability certainly will.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has conceded that Ireland faces a very difficult challenge to maintain the Cap budget. EU leaders will debate a proposal which would see the proportion of EU funds spent on Cap cut to 30% from today’s 36%, less than half of what it was in in the 1980s.
It is also proposed that 40% of Cap subsidies be linked to climate change action. Brexit makes some of these change unavoidable but so too does a sharpening public and political awareness that, like it or not, Cap subsidies underpin an industry producing emissions that will lead to multi-million fines.
One climate action policy that has had a very positive impact the decision to end coal burning at the ESB’s Moneypoint power station by 2025.
As a consequence coal imports fell nearly 80% last year, down from 1.6m tonnes in 2018 to 397,000 tonnes last year. Moneypoint may be reconfigured to generate power by less destructive methods but the difficult decision to end coal burning has been vindicated.
It would be surprising if the Greens were not involved in the next government. By definition they have an understanding of the challenge facing us all.
That challenge was underlined again yesterday by a Unicef report that ranked Ireland in the bottom 30 of 154 countries on delivering on emissions targets.
The report also warns that we are on track to emit 208% more CO2 than a 2030 target decrees. The Greens will, if in government face a huge task around creating a culture where driving a child to school is seen as an indulgence rather than a necessity.
A vote for change indeed.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
