State criticised for failure on greenhouse gas emissions

The Republic is facing fines of more than €1 billion over the next 10 years for its failure to tackle greenhouse gas emissions, a Fine Gael conference on renewable energy was told yesterday.

Presenting the Fine Gael policy on renewable energy, Mr Simon Coveney, Opposition spokesman on communications, marine and natural resources, said the Republic paid a lower price to producers of wind energy than either Scotland, Spain, Germany or France.

Current Government efforts to encourage the generation of alternative energy from wind were failing and were "getting worse instead of better" with each new programme.

But he insisted the argument for renewable energy was economic as well as environmental, pointing out that a recent report by the economist Dr Peter Bacon had predicted EU fines of €1,450 million in 2008, rising to €4,304 million in 2012.

The fines would be imposed for failure to restrict the State's greenhouse gases to a 13 per cent increase on 1990 levels.

Given that we are now almost 40 per cent above the 1990 levels, fines were virtually certain, he argued.

While much of the problem lay with the energy sector, he pointed out that agriculture currently accounted for 31 per cent of emissions.

He suggested the State take a more active role in the problem and convert buses and local authority vehicles to run on fuels which were more friendly to the environment. With the development of such fuels, he said, Ireland could become an exporter of energy.

The Fine Gael MEP, Ms Avril Doyle, said that under the polluter pays principal energy producers here would be receiving fines in the future. Given the dominant position of the ESB in the market, she said fines would be passed on to most consumers in terms of higher prices.

"Ireland is the worst performer in the EU in the area of renewable energy promotion. We produce just 2 per cent of gross electricity production from renewable energy sources, while production in Germany and Denmark averages over 20 per cent."

The 10-point policy presented by the Fine Gael Party yesterday includes:

o The creation of a financial framework attractive to producers of clean energy;

o The development of Ireland's wind energy resource;

o An inter-connector which would allow Ireland to export green energy;

o Development of wood biomass as an alternative to peat;

o An expansion of the forestry sector;

o Replacement of petro-fuels with bio-fuels;

o Development of research on wave and tidal energy;

o Local authorities to be directed to produce a renewable energy plan;

o The appointment of a Minister of State with direct responsibility for energy

o Completion of a €30 million investment in the electricity grid.