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Barry Cowen, the new Minister for Agriculture, has a priority task, courtesy of the programme for government agreed between Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party. The programme contains the following statement, notable for its precision in a document vague about specifics on most other issues:
‘We are conscious of the limitations of examining greenhouse gas emissions solely on a production basis. We will conduct a review of greenhouse gas emissions on a consumption basis, with a goal of ensuring that Irish and EU action to reduce emissions supports emission reductions globally as well as on our own territories.’
On a production basis, Irish agriculture is in the dock: this is a country with a successful food export business, reflecting a low population density and a decent endowment of soil and climate.
Ireland has plentiful farmland – its productive capacity outstrips the domestic demand for food and it is a sizeable net exporter, not surprisingly. Irish people apparently eat rather more than is wise, but they do not eat five times the European average, the figure that is to be inferred from production-based measures of emissions from Irish farming.
When you burn, as a resident of Ireland, a litre of diesel in your car, this gets counted as part of Irish emissions and rightly so
Every time you hear somebody complain that 33% of Irish emissions come from agriculture, while the figure is in single digits in most other EU countries, this reflects the manner in which emissions are measured, not the venality or carelessness of Irish farmers.
When you burn, as a resident of Ireland, a litre of diesel in your car, this gets counted as part of Irish emissions and rightly so. When the good people of Saudi Arabia dine on Irish dairy products, the emissions also get counted in Ireland. This is nuts, has always been nuts and this chicken has come home to roost in Barry Cowen’s in-tray.
The measurement of emissions should logically be based, in an interconnected world of advantageous international commerce, on consumption, not on production.
Today’s climate crisis, and a crisis it is, reflects the failure of the world’s governments to acknowledge that consumers need to be penalised for choices that are environmentally damaging
There should be taxes on the consumption of anything that involves carbon emissions, regardless of where on the planet it is produced. It should be produced wherever it is least costly to do so, giving each territory a fair shot at the world market, with the environmental negatives fully accounted for through carbon taxes in the consuming countries.
Today’s climate crisis, and a crisis it is, reflects the failure of the world’s governments to acknowledge that consumers need to be penalised for choices that are environmentally damaging. Some emissions are counted, correctly, on a consumption basis, but some on a production basis.
As well as devaluing the meaning of national emissions as measured, this penalises countries with a natural agricultural surplus which are part of the EU, because the EU has national emissions quotas and fines for non-compliance.
We should do our best, find the most effective ways to cut emissions
It is sometimes argued that Ireland should not bother having any climate policy, since every tonne of carbon emissions in Ireland is a drop in the ocean – there are almost 1,000 tonnes emitted somewhere else for every tonne emitted in Ireland. This is a morally bankrupt argument – if every one of the 200 countries in the world took this view, there really is no hope of a serious response for the planet, which has just one atmosphere.
We should do our best, find the most effective ways to cut emissions here, but be conscious that Ireland is not a planet and does not have its very own atmosphere. If the Republic of Ireland ceased to exist tomorrow and never produced or consumed another tonne of carbon, the incineration of the planet would be delayed by a few days or weeks.
The EU contributes about 11% of world emissions
This is not an argument for ducking obligations to cut emissions. It is an argument for doing our best here in Ireland while using that effort to good purpose, as a platform for making a better contribution to the formation of policy in Europe. The EU contributes about 11% of world emissions and has serious economic leverage with China and the US, the largest and second largest emitters. These three, China, the US and Europe, should they ever act in unison, are responsible for 55% of world emissions and have sufficient clout to dictate a worldwide policy on climate action.
The programme for government addresses this international dimension clearly. There is a commitment to ‘Work with our EU partners to ensure greater coherence and consistency on actions to tackle climate change…’.
If this new Government is to make a real contribution to dealing with the planetary emergency, it will be in the policy councils of the European Union – what is done here at home about Irish emissions is a rounding error in the overall scheme of things. If Joe Biden wins for the Democrats in November, the global community gets a fresh chance, just in time.
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