Madam, – Ireland needs a new niche. Our future economic success will depend entirely on our ability to pre-empt global trends and ensure that we are seen as a key “enabler” in the global economic system. Ireland has many opportunities, not least our large global diaspora.
Every indicator I can see suggests that global corporations are investing heavily in low carbon solutions. Every major economy has a commitment to reduce its carbon emissions by a greater or lesser extent over the coming decades – indeed many countries’ stimulus plans during the recession included hundreds of billions of dollars of low-carbon incentives.
Ireland is in the unique position of being able to mobilise our small, (still) wealthy, educated, networked population behind a concept – we need only look to our response to the austerity measures of recent months. We need to start investing to develop environmental science and “green” MBA courses in our universities, we need to attract and support the development of low-carbon energy alternatives in Ireland, we need to incentivise our information technology experts to develop low- carbon data systems and IT solutions.
In the 1990s and early Noughties we had a boom driven by inward investment attracted by sensible economic policies and an educated globally-networked workforce with a good command of the English language. The property bubble was driven by avarice and was essentially unsustainable, precipitating a pecuniary state of emergency. Leading the world in the transition to a sustainable, low-carbon economy is the perfect niche for Ireland. Missing the boat on the low-carbon economy will only copper-fasten our newly acquired status as an economic backwater ruled by an oligarchy of gombeen-men builders, bankers and politicians. – Yours, etc,