As budgetary caution evaporates under the Covid-19 shock, energy efficiency, buses and trains are getting funded like never before. Can these new environmental priorities survive into the future?
Much delayed legislation introduced by the Government on Wednesday will apply to Ireland the carbon budgeting world standard developed by the UK since 2008. It may not ban petrol cars as promised, but its ambition is much bigger: regulate the collaboration between scientific experts and politicians in solving their greatest challenge for the next 30 years.
The Programme for Government has promised €9.5 billion to help households and farmers become greener, funded by a four-fold increase in carbon tax over the coming decade. Data compiled by tax officials shows this is unlikely to happen.
For the first time in five years, new renewable electricity generation sites have been selected to receive government support, unlocking a new wave of pent-up investment, construction and corporate deals in the sector.
Bundled solutions taking the risk and the upfront cost out of switching to low-energy lighting, electric vehicles or solar panels for businesses are now needed for households. Industry and the new government have been tiptoeing around this model – it is time they take the plunge.
The majority of policies agreed by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party to achieve the transition towards a greener economy were already known from previous commitments or set in EU legislation. Yet a new level of ambition is emerging, with concrete actions most clearly spelled out in transport – and a lot left to be teased out in agriculture.
Norman Crowley has set his global carbon efficiency business on a path to double revenue every year – although he acknowledges a nine-month setback from Covid-19. As the Greens are set to enter government here, does he expect a policy boost to his business? “No.”
The head of global agribusiness Alltech finds himself hosting the first virtual edition of his company’s popular annual industry conference. He discusses how food production can navigate “the next normal”, and why his $3 billion firm remains private even as it enters new areas of digital technology and medicine.
While political agitation focuses on the already agreed target of a 7% annual cut in greenhouse gas emissions for the next decade, the real question is whether the next Government will agree to spend Covid-19 recovery funds in a way that makes low-carbon technologies more attractive than increasingly cheap fossil fuels.
Stricter environmental auditing requirements are coming, and the next government should help business get ready to turn Ireland into a climate technology leader, says the Green Party’s leader – but he sees no need to reform planning laws to facilitate this.
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