Colm McCarthy: controlling our carbon footprints

The Taoiseach caused quite a flutter by announcing that he planned to reduce his personal meat intake a couple of weeks back.

The food industry is used to swings in dietary fashions but the Taoiseach was not on a health kick: he was keen to reduce his personal carbon footprint, a popular choice with many people.

As concern grows about the failure of policy worldwide to engage with emission reduction, concerned citizens are beginning to modify their own consumption choices to help moderate climate change.

But there is something missing when policy failure encourages each of us to take policy into our own hands.

Policy is a matter for governments and voluntary changes in behaviour by individual citizens is not a policy.

People worry about driving, about air miles and food-miles and about the carbon efficiency of their own diets.

These taxes, common throughout Europe, have depressed per-capita private car emissions way below levels in the USA, where motoring is barely taxed at all

A friend drove to Dublin airport from Sligo last month, flew on to Boston and felt guilty about both the car trip and the flight, but her car trip from Sligo should cause no guilt at all.

Motoring in Ireland is taxed heavily, including steep fuel taxes.

These taxes, common throughout Europe, have depressed per-capita private car emissions way below levels in the USA, where motoring is barely taxed at all.

The air travel she was right to worry about. There are no taxes at all on jet kerosene, which has the same per-litre emissions as road diesel but costs less than half the price, even though the ex-refinery price is much the same. There is also no VAT on airline tickets.

People are over-consuming air travel and road travel in the USA, but it is not clear that they are over-consuming travel on the Sligo-Dublin road.

If every country in the world had Irish levels of taxation on automotive fuels, there would be a sharp reduction in emissions.

Aviation and maritime transport, untaxed, account for 7% or 8% of total worldwide emissions from fossil fuel combustion.

Citizen concern

The Taoiseach was signalling that he shares citizen concern about climate change and can hardly be faulted for that.

But there is a serious dilemma for farm organisations in Ireland.

It hardly matters if the Taoiseach goes easy on the steaks, but there are calls for the introduction of output controls and the reversal of recent dairy herd expansion, in order to keep within Ireland’s EU-mandated emission cap.

Aaron Forde, Aurivo’s CEO, pointed out in a letter last weekend to the Sunday Times that Ireland is, relative to other countries, a carbon-efficient producer of livestock products and IFA president Joe Healy has been making the same point.

Lower charges

If livestock products were subject to indirect taxes in the consumer markets, reflecting carbon emissions and depressing consumption, Irish product should logically face lower charges than those from less-favoured locations.

Irish producers would enjoy a relative carbon charge advantage if the evidence from the EU’s Joint Research Centre is correct.

They already enjoy a straight production cost advantage in dairy, as evidenced by the sharp output increase since milk quotas were lifted.

They should end up with a larger share of a smaller European market.

The big losers would not be Irish dairy farmers but those in locations where low-cost and carbon-efficient production in grass-fed systems is not possible.

The natural farmer reaction to the recent EAT/The Lancet report, urging higher taxes on various livestock products, is to resist.

There is little likelihood of an early initiative at EU level to move in this direction, but it is depressing to think that climate policy worldwide can continue to fail for another decade or two

But a widening consumer migration away from beef and dairy products may well be happening anyway.

If it is truly the case that the Irish livestock sector has a better cost structure and lower greenhouse gas emissions, a scientifically-based move to a carbon tax model at European level is a lesser threat than taxes on inputs or crude output restrictions.

There is little likelihood of an early initiative at EU level to move in this direction, but it is depressing to think that climate policy worldwide can continue to fail for another decade or two.

Public opinion is beginning to shift, even in the USA, where President Trump, a climate-change denier, is not assured of re-election in November next year.

The climate challenge is real and the delay in facing the music means that policy changes could be abrupt whenever they eventually arrive.

Ireland’s acceptance of production-based national emission quotas could turn into a zero-sum battle in domestic politics – why should farmers be spared their contribution to meeting the national quota?

Carbon charge

But the best policy is a universal consumption-based carbon charge, since there is plentiful evidence that the voluntary adherence of countries outside Europe to emission targets has failed and will continue to fail.

The next decade could see big policy shifts.

Perhaps the Irish farm organisations should suppress the natural inclination to oppose Europe-wide consumption taxes on livestock products.

Read more

Letter regarding the Lancet diet

‘Taoiseach’s comments on meat were stupid’ – Healy-Rae