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HOW THE GOVERNMENT is dealing with the issue of climate change has been dubbed a “charade” after it was revealed today €86 million has been spent in buying itself out of international environmental targets.
Seán Fleming, chair of the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee, said it was “horrific” that Irish taxpayers’ money had been spent by the NTMA purchasing carbon credits from other EU countries in order to meet its targets.
He said there was “the biggest act of gross hypocrisy” at play, stating the narrative from this government is “if we don’t meet our targets we can buy ourselves out of it”.
Fleming said essentially Ireland is “pretending” it can meet its target.
An additional concern cited by Fleming is Ireland could have to pay an additional €60 million to meet its current renewable energy targets.
The details were contained in correspondence from Secretary General of the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Mark Griffin, to the PAC.
The letter read to committee members today states that “the EU requires member states to meet their targets using unused emission credits from earlier years or to purchase credits from other member states via international markets”.
“The State’s response, all of our response at Oireachtas and government level, is entirely hypocritical when you read this letter.
“In simple English, if we don’t meet our targets we can buy our way out of the problem by buying unused emissions from somewhere else. It’s the biggest act of gross hypocrisy when it comes to the environment.
“We are saying that if we don’t meet our targets we will buy unused emission credits from somebody else and pay the price so that when we come to the end of the 2020 target, we are below our target because we have unused credits in the system,” said Fleming.
The government’s Climate Action Plan is due to be published shortly.
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They do the same for VRT as in pay a fine to EU every year for the illegal tax.
The Goveseem to be able to choose which EU directives to adhere too and which to ignore and pay fines for
@Gowon Geter: no they don’t. That is an urban myth – a derogation was granted to the state by the EU in relation to VRT.
VRT is many things, it is anti the free trade spirit of the EU, it is unclear, unfair in many cases and is an import duty by another name. Unfortunately though it is not illegal and there is no fine paid for it.
@Dara O’Brien: And would have to be replaced by another tax if abolished
@Thomas O’ Donnell: Unfortunately. That’s only half the problem though – if you can imagine that VRT was dropped tomorrow – all of a sudden, new cars would be as cheap as some of the 2 & 3 year old models on the forecourt.
That means that they would have to be dropped too and, once that’s done, all the other cars would need to come down by the same amount.
We’re stuck with it unfortunately.
@Gowon Geter: No fine has ever been levied in relation to VRT.
@Dara O’Brien: So we have policies whose official reasoning is something else, but whose net effect is to make cars expensive. Similar in a way to what we do with both owned and rented accommodation (though much less of a problem).
Whoever came up with ‘Carbon Credits’ is a genius!
People are making billions trading this new ‘commodity’ which unlike gold, it needs no security and unlike oil, doesn’t need any pipelines, carbon credits don’t need warehouses or any infrastructure actually and yet can be bought and sold… genius!
@Ciaran Adamson: just like bitcoin …
@Dara O’Brien: And us poor ejits pay for them, not one member of the government will pay a cent for these.
@Arch Angel:
Each member of the government pays the same in income tax (where funding for this will come from) as any other person on a similar salary.
And yet we have some of the most stringent guidelines for wind turbines in Europe. They need to be 800metres from the nearest dwelling, ruling out most of the country. Most now end up in the high court and wind developers are giving up. As with everything in this country, layers and layers of bureaucracy means the only winners are the solicitors.
@Mark Kelly:
Used to be 500 meters,(300 metres with house owners permission) about 3 years ago, has that changed?
@Mark Kelly: And quite right. I wouldn’t want one devaluing my house completely. Would you accept one right beside you? The rules are fine. The biggest offshore windfarm in the world is now online off Britain. They knew the issues with windfarms beside residential areas. Why can’t we have them in the Irish sea from Louth to Wexford? There is also more than enough isolated land that Bord na Mona can fill with windmills instead of burning peat. Don’t blame the little person, who worked hard for their house, only to see it devalued. Blame inept government.
@TheHeathen: The main issue is location relative to population centre. Electricity transport incurs high losses, last time I checked average transport losses across all generation types in Ireland was around 30%. Another issue is, Electricity generation from wind does not deliver consistent power quality for all wind speeds although the range has improved over time i.e. there is an upper and lower wind speed limit that the turbines actually generate useful power. The simple fact is that the closer you can get to a generation source the more power you can get from that source.
@TheHeathen:
Where are all these dirt cheap houses near windmills?;
@Mister H: They should blight D4 and the Dublin Mountains with windmills.
@Patrick Nolan: holland ?!
Do we get massive fines if we don’t meet those targets?? Genuine question.
@Devilsavocado: I believe we do. If we are now too late and about to fail, then buying credits makes sense if it’s cheaper than fines.
I don’t want extra millions on my back just so others can make a point.
What Ireland is doing here is also being done by numerous other countries.
As with most things connected to global warming things is never black or white.
@sean de paore:
That’s because it’s an EU tax collecting scam.
“The national targets are based on Member States’ relative wealth, measured by gross domestic product (GDP) per capita”
Ireland has no chance of meeting the environmental limits as long as peat and turf and coal is burnt. Also the diesel cars are banned.
@Roger Camp: petrol cars burn more co2 than diesel cars
Dublin Bus doubles down on dirty diesel bus orders, government increased BIK on EVs in last budget.
The taxes raised on petrol & diesel are already being used to pay health costs of burning same at steet level in our towns & cities an now used to buy carbon credits.
You can’t make this up.
Well, when climate change comes down to money, is there any wonder people will deny or resist?
@Doubtchya Boy!:
Everything comes down to money my friend, why would you think climate change would be different?
@Doubtchya Boy!: that’s what happens when all you can come up with is to tax your way out of a problem.
As we can see now despite the carbon taxes already in place the problem is worse than ever as there are no affordable alternatives for people.
Can the government not start planting millions of trees which would cut carbon…
@John Power:
Where?
@Patrick Nolan: In the ground, where do ya think.
@Patrick Nolan: well theres all that good peat rich soil from the now closed board na mona plants across the country , could get a hell of a lot of trees on the site of the former works in littleton co tipperary for a start – the woodlands could at a later date be used as a tourist destination -like the ‘new forest ‘ in the uk .
That €86m would go a long way towards reducing the next increase in the cost of the national children’s hospital. Maybe pay for an additional 2 and a half feet of broadband cable or even a few extra nights in a b and b for some unfortunate family
What’s money and fines gonna do for the planet.. Sweet FA
@Patti o furniture:
Unfortunately, human nature being what it is, it’s the only fast way of changing peoples habits.
Cant we tax the scooters to pay for it! lol.
There civil service is run by people who are 30 years in the past. The ministers know FK all about the environment. We need to hire experts in this area to move the country forward not a civil servant who passed the civil service exam 30 years ago and played the system to work his way to the top.
Last year 90% of Irelands recycling what shipped to China. We are against renewable energy. We pay people nothing who have solar panels and provide electricity to the grid for free and get nothing in return. We change people with electric cars €150 in road tax per year. The ESB wanted to charge electric car owners a levy for the privilege of having an electric car. We power the country by burning coal in Moneypoint. Yet we have ample supplies of wind wave energy we could exploit.
We should hand our heads in shame for electing a bunch of idiots.
Electric Vehicles run on power from fossil fuel which incurs a large transmission loss >20% so they do nothing for this at all. Effective Mass transport is a solution if it beats your car commute and it should a direct route to city unimpeded.
Super massive Turbines destroy the natural environment at no benefit to the area visually destroyed. They will be pushed though as an answer but in the end we’ll have a countryside covered in turbines and still lose 20% in getting it to homes.
The solution I like is the humble carbon credit instead of countries selling their allotment , let people sell them and create them. You sow acres of managed trees and lease the carbon processing after measurement make them part of the lifestyle with amenities etc. While gradually building and migrating to a functional mass transport system.
Maybe this is why the government is borrowing, via the NTMA abt 14 billion euro this year through bond issues. Perhaps they’re planning to invest it in structural change from fossil fuels to renewable. Won’t hold my breath. But do keep encouraging the climate protestors in the cities Mr Varadkar, you’re good at PR and hypocrisy.
The people must march and get rid of the gangsters in goverment
i read recently that ireland does not include its thousands of acres of grassland when counting the value of ‘carbon sinks’ which can be offset against a countries carbon output and therefore reduce the amount o carbon footprint that leads to these fines . other countries (usa ,canada ,new zealand ,scandinavia ) all count their grasslands as well as their forestry and thereby significantly lower their carbon emission figures … i this can be done WHY in gods name is ireland not doing it ? we have acre upon acre of grassland ,meadow and ormer peat bogs /bogland which together would mean a major boost to our carbon sink figures and mean less in fines or reduce the amount we spend on buying carbon credits from elsewhere — is this another example of our government departments looking for an easy solution rather than actually working at finding a proper solution ?
As with most mafia organisations
Money goes up
Shit goes down
Levy carbon tax to buy carbon credits and do nothing, sounds like a plan alright…..
This government are out of ideas. They have zero credibility. Send Leo and his cronies packing … We are sick of lies and spin.
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