Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
IRELAND’S EMISSIONS BASED on the goods the country consumes are 74% higher than the emissions directly produced within the state.
A new working paper from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has found that the global carbon footprint of Irish consumption is higher than what is reflected in the current calculation based on emissions produced in the country.
It means that the volume of emissions it takes to make the goods around the world that Ireland uses is significantly higher than the emissions officially attributed to it.
The production-based approach, which looks only at the greenhouse gas emissions created in Ireland, is the one used internationally for measuring and comparing between countries, but a growing body of research is investigating the impact of emissions from the goods that countries import and consume.
In Ireland, consumption-based emissions are estimated to be 107 metric tonnes of CO2 equivalent, 74% higher than the estimated production-based emissions.
Speaking to The Journal, ESRI Senior Research Officer Dr Kelly de Bruin explained that “generally when we measure emissions, we look at the total amount of emissions that are emitted within a country”.
“So in Ireland, we look at how many emissions actually go into the air and that’s considered to be Irish emissions. That’s called the production-based approach,” Dr de Bruin outlined.
“But then you also have another approach, which is based on consumption. Instead of saying how much greenhouse gases are emitted within a country, we say how much greenhouse gases are emitted to produce the goods that are consumed by that country.
“In the case of Ireland, we look at all the goods that we import from abroad for own use, such as cars, clothing, all of these things – how much emissions are needed to produce those goods for us.
“We compare those two different ways of looking at it and we see that if you only look at the Irish emissions, it’s 61 million tonnes, and if you look at the emissions needed to support Irish consumption, it’s 106 million tonnes, so it’s 74% more.”
The research identified that the most emission-intensive imported goods were chemicals, rubber, other mining products, trade, transportation equipment, high technological products, food, beverage and tobacco and textiles.
The highest absolute levels of imported emissions were found for mining products, chemicals, high-technological products, public services, crops, trade and transportation equipment.
For some goods, the amount of production-based emissions in Ireland is negligible but very significant under a consumption approach, such as textiles, construction, and other manufacturing.
Dr De Bruin described the figure as “concerning”, particularly given that policies are “focused on the national emissions because that’s what we are held accountable for, that’s what a lot of targets are based on”.
“But if we care about the climate and the global impact, we also need to consider the impacts of our consumption and the emissions we are creating abroad.”
Currently, countries that have signed the Paris Agreement agreed to reduce their national emissions, which is what climate policies are then based on.
“However, because of the inequality in the world, what’s happening is that poorer nations are producing goods for us to consume, and hence emitting on their emissions budgets,” Dr de Bruin said.
“It’s not per se the fault of our initial policies but it is something that we need to consider. I think as global consumers, we need to think about the consequences of our consumption.
“One of the reasons we don’t use this method is because it’s very hard to calculate and it’s very hard to compare, but it is something that is being talked about a lot more.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
One death in millions of miles of driving sounds good to me. Strange how every article I read about this frames it as how “unsafe” these vehicles are yet the actual data (that people don’t bother about anymore) says the exact opposite. If Musk is to pull off his electric car dream he doesn’t just have to achieve remarkable feats of engineering, he also has to overcome the media who are in the pockets of the big energy companies and politicians.
Much safer than of those car were being driven by people. I hope the rare but inevitable accidents don’t slow down the development of this technology
Exactly, I remember hearing an example of a town in the US where they set a legal limit on the height of buildings due to automobile industry lobbying.
One death in infinity amount of miles is too much. Peoples safety should always be number one. There chould have been a whole family in that car with kids. All die because of a fault. But according to you this satistic sounds good to you.
What on earth are you taking about Paddy?
I’m saying that, even in these early stages, autonomous cars are obviously much safer than people driving.
Paddy there was nothing stopping the man from intervening, in fact it is explicitly stated that they should. He obviously didn’t see the truck either. Just a tragic accident.
Tweety doesn’t understand statistics
While there are cars on the roads their will be accidents and with our driving habits and accident stats they can’t mass produce these cars quickly enough,would get our death toll on the roads down to low double figures and who wouldn’t want that?
My Volvo has adaptive curse control and lane assist, I still don’t trust it 100% and would never will do so as sometimes heavy rain interrupts it. Tesla use images via a camera to define where the car is on the road, if they had a radar system combined with cameras then this exact example wouldn’t have happened, but heavy rain will always be a problem for these systems
Your car stops you from cursing? Censored by a Swede!!!!
Well know fact that Volvo hates bad language being used by drivers
Automation is a positive development and will eventually allow all kinds of people to have transport that wouldn’t otherwise. But it’s another generation off realistically. In all, the day to day world hasn’t changed that much since the 80′s really – apart from internet, computers and smartphones of course.
I think there were far bigger changes and advancement between the 1950′s and 1980′s than there were between the 1980′s and 2016.
They have a radar system but it tunes out what looks like overhead road signs, and in this case the trailer looked like one.
Sorry to say but the driver wasn’t even looking at the road, drove straight into it.
Maybe when 99% of the cars are self-driving then we can take our hands off the wheel… Until then, forget it.
It was obviously a typo error Dave. He meant course.
Let’s rise against the machines before it’s too late.
Just smashed up the microwave in my work canteen!!!!!!!
We need to start a following. Call Joe Carroll
And so it begins..
In fairness the first death in 130 million miles is a much better safety record than human drivers.
Wonder how it would cope at 2am on a summers night, heading home along quiet country back roads, only to be met by a tractor towing a trailer with spikes on it that stick 2 feet out onto your side of the road.
The problem with these tests and the amount of miles is that the majority of them have been clocked up on closed testing areas with controlled environments. It seems that, when introduced into the uncontrolled environment that is daily life, their safety becomes more questionable.
Of course it’s still too early to jump to conclusions as to whether the technology actually is safe or not for practical use.
Undie, what planet are you living on where there’s tractors out at 2am?
Bit of a blow for Tesla – “Harley called the death unfortunate, but said that more deaths can be expected as the autonomous technology is refined” “Unfortunate” bur expect more death, could he not have mellowed the tone a little :|
If you read tesla’s statement it says that the truck turned left across the path of the car.the car couldn’t see the difference between yhe road and the white truck side and the sun was shining on it. The car nose went under the truck trailer while the windscreen hit the trailer and sheared off. If the truck had been a different colour, the sun at a different angle, or the car made contact with a different parts of the truck, he may still be alive. Just a series of unfortunate events.
A series of unfortunate events? It was a fault in the design due to an inability to detect a large trailer approaching the front of the vehicle. If the vehicle was not automatically piloted by a system that could be easily blinded in such a way, this crash would not have happened.
Humans *NEVER* get blinded by the sun, right?
People were crashing & dying when GPS went mainstream because they relied on the technology more than common sense. I foresee Darwinism thinning the herd a bit more now as autopilot gains popularity.
Let’s be clear. It was the fault of the driver. He’s require to maintain awareness and keep his hands on the wheel. Obviously he didn’t do that as neither he nor the system saw the danger. It’s a two step process, much sager than the way things currently are, and unfortunately both steps failed.
This will put the driverless luas back by 3 weeks
I’ve got a Tesla model S…
When they first turned on the autopilot it almost drove me into a closed lane a few times. It couldn’t recognize traffic cones. But it seems to be learning and getting better with every update.
People are gone too lazy to sit into a car and drive it.. i give up!
Skynet will take over soon
Lots of taxi drivers would do a couple of million miles in their career. I’m sure they wouldn’t like to end their days smashed up in an automated wreck
In a few years taxi drivers won’t exist as a profession.
Tesla have contributed to this by the way they implemented the system to require little or no driver presence. Case in point all those guys who filmed themselves sitting in the back seat while being auto piloted. On the record they say you need to pay attention and monitor the autopilot. But off the record they enable people to use the system in an unsafe manner.
You’re right. Tesla should have an employee in the car with every single user when they’re driving to ensure they’re not using it in an unsafe manner…thankfully it’s only those pesky electric cars that people abuse.
Exactly, Guru. And IKEA should send someone to everyone’s houses to make sure those damn MALM drawers don’t fall on children.
Or maybe people should anchor them to their walls instead, like they say in the instructions :D (which reminds me, I must anchor mine).
First things first Tom, the person behind the wheel is the ONLY person responsible for how the car is driven. Tesla ‘contributed’ a feature (which is essentially still in Beta-Testing) that ASSISTS with driving (the same way a Sat-Nav assists with directing you where to go). The person behind the wheel is the one who can choose to use this feature as intended, rely entirely on it, or drive sensibly by themselves.
Second point: Tesla don’t “enable people to use the system in an unsafe manner” but instead advise against doing ANYTHING unsafe while driving. No matter what, there will always be people who decide to act in an unsafe manner. They don’t even need to be driving at the time. If you think I’m wrong, then I recommend you google “planking deaths” or “necknomination”
Maybe they should just make cars that are limited to 80km/ph and covered with bubble wrap.
You own the car, you’re responsible for how you drive it. That’s why people do driving tests.
Dave, check your caps lock key. And I agree with Volvo on this, Tesla were reckless in introducing this feature, everyone knew it would be abused due to the way they implemented it. Labeling it as a Beta does not absolve them of anything, though you seem to think it does.
Caps lock is working fine, thanks for your concern. Tesla didn’t tell this guy to ignore the road & watch a Harry Potter movie while speeding. Tesla are not to blame for their efforts in advancing technology. People are to blame for thinking that the technology has already reached perfection. My original point still stands: the person in the driver’s seat is the ONLY one responsible for how the car is driven (I emphasise the ‘only’ again because you still haven’t grasped the concept of people being responsible for their own actions)
Battery power is the main problem in both cars and phones, wish they would put their efforts into fixing that first
have your say