Personal steps in cutting carbon urged

IRISH PEOPLE need to assume responsibility for their high levels of consumption and individual carbon emission if Ireland is successfully address climate change, Minister for the Environment John Gormley said last night.

Climate change will become the "national question" for this generation of Irishmen and Irishwomen, he said.

The Green Party leader was giving the final keynote address in a series of public lectures organised by the Environmental Protection Agency. More than 700 people attended the event in Dublin's Mansion House.

Mr Gormley argued that responsibility for tackling climate change not only resided in Government but also in individuals. He said the second part of the Government's €12.5 million advertisement campaign would focus on the individual and his or her levels of carbon emission.

In this context, he also criticised the excesses of western consumerism, saying that everybody needed to be aware of their own "carbon counts".

"We all individually contribute to climate change and we can measure this impact in terms of a carbon count or a carbon number that is different for each of us. Once we know our number, we can then take action to reduce it. This is bringing the global to the personal," he said.

During the course of his address, Mr Gormley unveiled the new TV advertisement on climate change, which was also shown on RTÉ and TV3.

It invokes the memories of Éamon de Valera and Michael Collins and implies that climate change should now be put at the centre of political discourse, as Irish freedom, the War of Independence, partition, emigration, the Troubles and the peace process have been in the past.

He said that a TV campaign was one thing but a national movement was also needed to address the problems associated with global warning. The Government's initiative, the "Change Campaign", would work to change mindsets on this question, he said.

"The central theme of the campaign is a challenge to the Irish nation to change the way we think about climate change when it comes to travel, work, business, home and leisure," he added.

The Minister said the footprinting, management and accounting of carbon would be the tools used to manage emissions in Ireland. Environmental considerations would also be at the forefront of public procurement policy.